This article is from page 13 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A WITNESS who gave evidence in the trial over three weeks ago has claimed he was intimidated by a garda, after he left the courtroom in the Four Courts.
John Keating, a builder from Lim- erick, told the court yesterday that Detective Garda Terese Flannery said to him, “We’ll be getting hand- cuffs for you here John.”
He said this shocked him. “TI felt intimidated that day, what was said to me outside that door,” he told the ore) bam
He said that after giving evidence in the trial on June 5, he was ques- tioned by gardai for over three hours and was scared.
“*T didn’t know whether I was going to be arrested, after what was said to me. I didn’t know. It was scary,” he Ke) (eM MatoMOUT-DEA on iKosRer-Ne
However, Senior Counsel for the Prosecution, Tom O’Connell said it was Said in a joke.
Detective Garda Terese Flannery refuted the allegation. She told the court yesterday that her role in the trial was to liaise with the witnesses.
She said that she gestured — by putting her hands up — to a number of witnesses, including Mr Keating, that they were being rounded up, at lunchtime, that day.
“T didn’t mention handcuffs. I want- ed to bring them across the road,’ she told the trial.
Asked by Una Ni Raifeartaigh, BL for the Prosecution, was there “some kind of threat arising out of the evi- dence he gave that day’, the garda replied, “Not at all.”
“TI did make that gesture, but I didn’t mention John,’ she said.
When Mr Keating gave evidence on June 5, he told the court that he was with Sharon Collins between 10.30am and 12.40pm or 12.50pm on August 16, 2006.
He said the two had visited a number of properties during that time, including Ms Collins’ mother’s home and Sharon’s former home at Maiville.
Sharon had wanted to extend the Maiville home, in the shape of two self-contained apartments and she had asked him to have a look at it.
The two also went to a tile shop before going to Ballybeg House. Mr Keating returned to Limerick, arriv- ing at around 1.30pm.
Yesterday, his evidence was revis- ited and he was asked by Prosecutor Tom O’Connell did he know Ms Col- Treo 0
‘You refer to her as Sharon. Did you know her?” asked Mr O’Connell.
The witness replied that he had “known them since 1995”. He
said she had introduced him to the Howards and he done a lot of work for them over the years.
Mr O’Connell asked him when did he make a record, in his diary, of events of August 16, 2006.
“You made them up, the entries in the diary,’ said Mr O’Connell, to which he replied, “Excuse me, I didn’t make them up.”
Mr Keating said that Sharon Col- lins’ son Gary contacted him a few weeks before the trial and asked him if he could recall the events of Au- gust 16.
He said he found his diary in his
van and said he remembered the date clearly as he had returned home from the UK, on a ferry, on August 14, having been to his niece’s wedding.
Mr O’Connell put it to him that a statement from the ferry company would say there was no record of him on the dates he had mentioned.
Mr Keating replied that he himself had phoned Stena last Sunday and was told that a new computer system had been installed and records for the past three years could not be ac- ee
Mr O’Connell put it to Mr Keating that his diary entries for August 16
were written in three different inks.
“You used three different pens,’ he said, to which the witness replied, ““T’ve loads of biros, loads of biros at home and in my van.”
He said he could use several biros at any one time.
Detective Inspector Michael Moore said he forensically examined the d1- ary and said, “The only conclusion I could make was that at least three different types of ink were used for the entries of the 16th of August, 2006.”