A gunman who shot a father dead in front of his seven-year-old daughter has failed in a bid to have his conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
Keith O\u2019Neill (47) had pleaded not guilty to murdering John Wilson (35) on September 28, 2012, at Mr Wilson\u2019s home on Cloverhill Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. <\/p>\n
A jury found him guilty, however, and he was sentenced to life by Mr Justice Tony Hunt at the Central Criminal Court in May 2015. O’Neill had 116 previous convictions at the time. <\/p>\n
Lawyers for O\u2019Neill later claimed the conviction was \u201cunsafe and unsound\u201d and launched an appeal, claiming evidence from a forensic expert on the presence of gunshot residue found on clothes O\u2019Neill had dumped in a skip should not have gone before the jury. <\/p>\n
In a submission to the appellate court, Ronan Munro SC, for O\u2019Neill, described how a single particle of a firearms discharge residue, located in the internal right pocket of a coat found hanging on the Barry George\u2019s kitchen door, had help convict the Englishman of Jill Dando\u2019s murder. <\/p>\n
The BBC presenter had been shot dead as she stood on the doorstep of her house in south London in April 1999, in what was widely described as an \u2018execution-style\u2019 killing. <\/p>\n
Mr George, who has family in Cork and Limerick, was found guilty of Ms Dando\u2019s murder following a trial in 2001 but he successfully appealed against the conviction and was acquitted in 2008. <\/p>\n
Mr Munro claimed the \u201ckernel of the case\u201d against his client had been circumstantial gunshot evidence. \u201cAnd had it not been made available to the jury, there would not have been a conviction,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
At one stage during his appeal O\u2019Neill, formerly of Lissadell Drive, Drimnagh, Dublin, but now a prisoner at Wheatfield Prison, was warned by Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding, to stop \u201cgesticulating and shouting\u201d at members of the court after the appellant attempted to address the three appeal judges directly. <\/p>\n
Counsel for O’Neill had argued that firearm residue found on the clothing could have been contaminated by the garda who seized the bags because he carried a gun. <\/p>\n
During the trial, O’Neill’s barrister had also objected to being “interrupted” by the judge as well as objecting to the forensic evidence being put before the jury.<\/p>\n
The grounds of appeal were that the judge engaged in “excessive commentary” during the defence’s cross-examination. It was submitted that this could have undermined the cross-examination, which then could have misdirected the jury and rendered the conviction unsafe.<\/p>\n
A second ground of appeal was that the judge wrongly ruled that the forensic evidence was admissible, despite objection from the appellant at the trial.<\/p>\n
Today at the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said that O’Neill’s trial was based on “circumstantial evidence” and that it was claimed by the appellant that the trial judge had “descended into the arena, rather than marshal events”.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Justice McCarthy said that in circumstantial cases, judges can be required to go further regarding evidence. He said the court found that in this case, the judge “did not go further than necessary regarding the charges as a whole”.<\/p>\n
“At no time were the jury led to believe that the decision on the view which they might take on any relevant fact was not solely a matter for them. The exchange with counsel which was the subject of criticism did not undermine or disparage the cross-examination as alleged. We are not persuaded accordingly that any fault can be found with the charge either,” said Mr Justice McCarthy.<\/p>\n
On the trial judge allowing the forensic evidence to go before the jury, despite defence objections based on contamination, Mr Justice McCarthy said this ground would also be dismissed.<\/p>\n
“There is no reason to suppose that the jury approached this evidence with anything other than care and weighed it in the ordinary way. The judge’s approach, when adjudicating on the issue of admissibility, was thorough, careful and well-founded. Later, he dealt with the matter adequately in the charge. We therefore dismiss this appeal, ” said Mr Justice McCarthy.<\/p>\n
Mr Wilson was shot in the back and a shotgun was used to carry out the murder. Six rounds were discharged but only two of them entered the deceased, one to fatal effect. Six cartridges were later retrieved at the scene by garda\u00ed. Mr Wilson died almost instantaneously in the front hallway of his home.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed were notified of the shooting at about 2.55pm and within minutes of the event, a vehicle similar to one described as leaving the scene was found to have been set alight using an accelerant at nearby Cherry Orchard Crescent.<\/p>\n
The fire was put out and the registration was traced to an address in Kildare, which had reported a stolen car several days before.<\/p>\n
Scarves and gloves with barcodes still on them were retrieved and traced to purchases made by O’Neill the day before that were captured on Dunnes Stores’ CCTV.<\/p>\n
Gardai had O’Neill under surveillance after the shooting and he was observed placing two JD bags into a skip that night, which were retrieved and found to contain clothing similar to that worn by the shooter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A gunman who shot a father dead in front of his seven-year-old daughter has failed in a bid to have his conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
Keith O\u2019Neill (47) had pleaded not guilty to murdering John Wilson (35) on September 28, 2012, at Mr Wilson\u2019s home on Cloverhill Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. <\/p>\n
A jury found <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":32448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n