The Special Criminal Court has heard that a man seen on CCTV footage with murder accused John Dundon, handed over his phone to gardaí, on the day Shane Geoghegan was shot.
The trial has already heard evidence, that the man in question, Philip Collopy, received a phone call from John Dundon on the morning of the shooting, and informed him that the wrong man had been killed.
John Dundon (31) of Hyde Road, Limerick denies murdering the Garryowen rugby player at the Clonmore Estate, Kilteragh, Dooradoyle , in the early hours of November 9th 2008.
Today, the non-jury court was shown CCTV footage of four men walking on Cruises Street in Limerick, over a week before the shooting.
Retired Detective Garda Sean Lynch identified the four men as John Dundon, Philip Collopy, his brother Kieran Collopy, and finally, Barry Doyle, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Shane Geoghegan.
The main prosecution witness April Collins, has previously given evidence at the trial that John Dundon arranged a meeting in a car park on the Dublin Road at around 6.30am on the morning of the shooting.
She testified that John Dundon was very excited and said ‘Johnny Mac is dead, we got him’ and that he decided to phone Philip Collopy and slag him about it.
She said he panicked when he learned from Collopy that the wrong man had been killed.
April Collins is the former girlfriend of John Dundon’s brother Gerard, who is currently in prison.
She claims to have witnessed John Dundon ordering Barry Doyle to murder a man called Johnny Mac.
Having identified the men in CCTV footage, DG Lynch told the court today that he attended the murder scene at Kilteragh.
He has given evidence that Philip Collopy turned up at the scene and handed over his mobile phone to gardai. He said it was placed in a bag as evidence.
The court heard Mr Collopy subsequently died in an accident.
Another key prosecution witness is April Collins’s sister Lisa. She was recalled to the stand today by the defence.
Brendan Nix SC asked her about a Crimecall reconstruction of Shane Geoghegan’s murder which was screened on RTE on November 18th 2008.
He said it was very moving as the family were involved.
She agreed that she had seen it but had made no comment when interviewed by gardai the following February.
She said she waited until last year to give a statement to gardai about the murder because she had been afraid to say anything at the time.
Earlier the court directed the passport office in Cork to make available any particulars on file relating to John Dundon as the defence believes details of a passport he held around 2008 could have a bearing on the case.
