Diarmuid Phelan denies murder of Keith ‘Bono’ Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght
Diarmuid Phelan: has pleaded not guilty to murdering 35-year-old Keith Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght. Photoraph: Collins CourtsThe decision of law professor Diarmuid Phelan to fire warning shots at a trespasser on his farm in Tallaght was a reasonable response “given the perception of an imminent threat and the short time available for decision making”, a defence expert has told his trial.
The Cure’s Robert Smith: ‘I wear lipstick, I’m 65. I’m not the person to stand up to say what’s wrong with the world’Mr Phelan has pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith ‘Bono’ Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on February 24th, 2022.Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on February 22nd and died from a single gunshot wound to the head at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.
The witness agreed that rapid shooting in stressful situations can make it difficult to hold the alignment of the revolver. He said the shorter the barrel of a firearm, the more significant the degree of misalignment. He said minor errors with short barrelled guns can have “major consequences at greater distances”.
Dr Lewinski told the jury that “the general manipulation problems” of the Smith & Wesson firearm particularly when fired rapidly in stressful circumstances, and the challenges involved in shooting accurately with that gun at a moving person “either to hit them or to intentionally not hit them” and the distance involved in the incident “all created very serious problems for anyone in the incident regardless of the extent of their training with other weapons”.
Dr Lewinski said the combination of the prior threats, the individuals’ proximity and the threat’s complexity made it challenging for someone to act with complete certainty. The response of shooting, he continued, was aligned with the need to prevent an assault and engage in self-defence, “consistent with the standards of reasonable force, specifically with the intent to warn before using deadly force when feasible”.
The 12 jurors were told by the State in their opening address that Mr Phelan said he was shaking with fear and “scrambled” up a bank to get away but when the deceased man Keith Conlon and a second man kept coming he believed they were “coming to fulfil the threats they had made”.
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