A 63-year-old dairy farmer has gone on trial charged with murdering another man by intentionally ramming his car several times with a teleporter which he was driving.
The Central Criminal Court sitting in Tralee heard that the deceased suffered catastrophic injuries, including penetrating wounds to his heart, his liver and his back.
Michael Ferris, from Rattoo near the north Kerry village of Ballyduff, pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on a single charge of murdering 73-year-old John Anthony Mahony.
The prosecution alleges that two men had a falling out several years ago over the use of crow bangers by Mr Mahony to scare birds from his land, close to Mr Ferris' farm.
Prosecuting Senior Counsel Patrick McGrath told the jury they would hear evidence that on the morning of 4 April 2017, Mr Ferris intentionally rammed Mr Mahony’s car with the teleporter he was driving, causing serious injuries to his head and body.
He said there would be evidence that Mr Mahony’s DNA was found in blood samples taken from one of the prongs of the teleporter.
Defence Senior Counsel Brendan Grehan said he it was admitted that Mr Ferris was driving the teleporter; he said the issue for the jury would be not what happened but why it happened.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
