The jury in the trial of a law professor and barrister accused of murder has heard an issue arose over the translation from French to English of eyewitness evidence given last week during which the accused was described as “really pissed off” shortly before a fatal shooting.
Diarmuid Phelan, 56, is accused of murdering 35-year-old Keith Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Tallaght in Dublin in February 2022.
Mr Phelan denies murder and says Mr Conlon was shot by accident after he fired his gun in self defence.
The prosecution says he intended to kill or cause serious injury.
Today, Judge Siobhán Lankford told the jury that an issue had arisen in relation to the translation of eyewitness evidence.
Last week, the jury heard evidence by video link from French national Pierre Godreu who worked on Mr Phelan’s farm in February 2022.
During cross-examination, he was asked if Mr Phelan looked frightened and said: “No, he was really pissed off.”
Mr Godreu said two men were following Mr Phelan and another worker up the field and were gaining on them because they were really angry too.
Today, Judge Lankford told the jury that last week a witness described Mr Phelan’s countenance or expression as he emerged from the woods using the French word “énervé”.
The judge said this had been translated into English as “really pissed off”.
She told the jury that she needed to tell them that firstly, the translator had used slang or a vulgar expression which the word énervé did not carry.
Secondly, the witness had not used the word “really” and thirdly, that the word énervé can have a range of meanings to convey anything from edgy to annoyed.
The trial resumed in evidence with the cross-examination of a garda mapping expert.
Det Gda Pádraig Coone was questioned by defence counsel Seán Guerin about the terrain where the shooting took place.
Mr Guerin said the fatal injury had struck Keith Conlon 6cm below the top of his head.
The garda agreed with Mr Guerin that if a person was standing at the bottom of a slope and walking to the top, the elevation of their head would change, effectively causing them to “walk into the line of fire”.
Mr Guerin said there has been evidence to the jury that the gap between Diarmuid Phelan and the individuals approaching him had closed to 2m before any shot was fired.
The garda agreed with Mr Guerin that a shot that just cleared the head at 2m distance could have caused a fatal injury at 1m distance.
During re-examination by prosecuting counsel John Byrne, the garda agreed that those calculations assumed that the three shots were fired in exactly the same trajectory.
He also agreed with Mr Byrne that if they were not on the same trajectory, other factors would come into play.
The trial continues tomorrow.
