Neighbour: Nally was demented with fear
The neighbour of Co Mayo farmer Padraig Nally, who is on trial for the manslaughter of a Traveller, has claimed the accused was “demented with fear” about attacks on his property.
Michael Varley said he had known Mr Nally for as long as he had lived in the area, and that Mr Nally had lived at the farm with his parents until they recently passed away.
Mr Nally (aged 62), of Funshinaugh, Cross, Claremorris, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to the unlawful killing of father-of-11 John Ward after he entered his land on October 14, 2004.
Asked under cross-examination by counsel for the defence Michael Bowman BL about Mr Nally’s character, he said: “If there was ever any bit of bother I’d just go to Padraig and he’d just drop tools and come with you.”
However, he said more recently Mr Nally had had concerns about his property, including a chainsaw and other things that had been taken.
He said: “The way Padraig would be talking, he was afraid.” He said in his opinion “the man was demented with fear”.
He said he himself was a married father-of-three and would not have had such fears, but he knew one old man who kept the lights on in his house all night.
Asked if Mr Nally was aggressive or violent, he said: “Padraig Nally was never a violent man. He never said a word to anybody or raised a hand in his life and he wouldn’t have now but for what happened.”
Asked by counsel for the prosecution if he had seen any marks on Mr Nally after he met him shortly after the killing he said: “I saw bits of blood on his hands. That’s all. I didn’t go looking to see were his hands cut.”
Asked if there had been any signs of a struggle on him he said: “Padraig Nally told me when John Ward caught him by the throat that if he got him in the testicles he would have been done for. 'It was either him or me.'”
He said he wasn’t looking at the accused for marks but he noticed his hair was “very tossed from the ground. Bushy altogether, you know.”
He agreed Mr Nally was a strong man. The State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told the court Mr Ward had died as a result of a shotgun wound to the trunk, with blunt-force wounds to his head being a contributory factor.
She said the bullet wound had damaged his heart and he would have lost a lot of blood from wounds to his head.
Death was due principally to blood loss, which was why these were a contributory factor. She said when she looked at the body at the scene she noted the deceased had a gunshot wound to his left armpit and another to his right loin.
The one to his loin had entered the tissue and the muscles of the hip and buttock and exited through the right buttock.
The fatal shot had entered through his inside left upper arm and downwards into the left lung and heart.
The wound suggested the gunman was above him at the time it was inflicted and there was little pellet spread, suggesting it had been at close proximity.
She said she had also found eight full lacerations on the scalp as well bruises, grazes and superficial lacerations on the face.
He had injuries to the front of his neck, suggesting something with a circular end had been pushed into the skin.
She later agreed the end of a shotgun could have caused this. He had also fractured the lower part of his left forearm close to the wrist, which she agreed with the prosecution could have been caused by an implement similar to that used in the head injuries as he tried to defend himself from the blows.
She was shown exhibit five in the case, a wooden stick, and agreed this could have caused the injuries.
Dr Cassidy agreed with Brendan Grehan SC that no one had asked her to examine the shotgun before.
She also agreed the injuries to the head had only gone through soft tissues, which, while impeding the deceased slightly, would not have affected his general mobility and would have left him capable of fighting back and moving around.
Detective Sergeant James Carroll told Mr John Jordan BL, prosecuting, he had interviewed the accused a number of times after the alleged offence.
He read from a transcript of an interview in which Mr Nally said he had got into a struggle with the deceased, who was trying to kick him in the testicles.
He said he caught him by the throat, got him on his back and “I got a stick and I hammered the dust out of him.”
He said he had become enraged after seeing Mr Ward coming out of his house. He said he had been afraid the victim’s son would come in after him as he had seemed “awful strong”.
Asked about picking up the gun for the second time he said: “I said to myself he wasn’t going again. I’m so long being raided. This was going to be the last time.”
He said he intended to shoot Mr Ward, whom he had seen three weeks beforehand. “I didn’t know his name but I know it was the same fellow.”
He said he broke the gun and when the first cartridge popped he cocked it again. He said he was “out of his mind” thinking about what was going to happen and he wanted to “finish off” the victim.
“I couldn’t live with it any more,” he said. He said Mr Ward was walking on and didn’t look back when he pointed the gun in his direction and fired.
He said he knew he was dead as there was no sign of breathing. He then threw the gun on the side of the road, put his hands under Mr Wards shoulders and lifted him over a wall.
He said: “I was afraid last night somebody would come in and I would be got in my bed.” He denied he had been trying to hide the body and said he had cried the day his sister Maureen, who sat beside him in court, had left the house on the Sunday evening before the killing.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins and a jury of eight men and four women.