Aaron Brady has been accused of wearing the shooting of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe as a ‘badge of honour’ to intimidate or curry favour with people.
Mr Brady, from Crossmaglen in County Armagh, denies murdering Detective Donohoe during an armed robbery outside a credit union in Co. Louth.
In his closing speech for the prosecution, Lorcan Staines SC accused Aaron Brady of telling straight out lies – big ones, little ones, clever ones, and stupid ones.
He claimed he was the one who pulled the trigger outside Lordship Credit Union on January 25th, 2013 – and that he knew his target was an on-duty Garda.
He accused him of using evidence disclosed by the prosecution as ‘building blocks’ to create a false alibi for the time of the shooting.
He described him as a “skilled and practiced liar” who takes real events and superimposes them onto the falsity.
Mr Staines claimed the accused made comments admitting to the shooting while in the US - either while crying or lamenting or bragging with his chest puffed out.
He asked if all the circumstantial evidence in the case could be just a lot of bad luck? Just one enormous mistake? ‘If that were so,’ he said, ‘it would be some string of unfortunate events.’
Reporting from Frank Greaney
