Barrister Diarmuid Phelan found not guilty of murdering Keith Conlon
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Law professor Diarmuid Phelan, who went on trial for murdering a trespasser on his farm but maintained from the outset he had no intention of shooting him and had acted in self-defence when he fired three warning shots, has been acquitted by a Central Criminal Court jury.
The panel of nine men and three women returned their unanimous verdict to Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford on Friday evening, agreeing with the defence case that Mr Phelan was entitled to defend himself when he came under threat on his own land.
They had spent six hours and 51 minutes over two days considering their verdict following a 10-week trial.
Mr Phelan, 56, made no reaction as the 12 jurors left the courtroom but was later seen embracing his family.
Members of victim Keith Conlon's family quickly left the courtroom as soon as the not guilty verdict was announced.
The jury rejected the State's case that when the third shot was fired by Mr Phelan, the gun was pointed in the direction of Mr Conlon, who was shot in the back of the head, when it was argued he had turned away to leave. It was in those circumstances, the prosecution said, that Mr Phelan intended to either kill or cause serious injury to Mr Conlon.
Instead, the jurors accepted Mr Phelan's position he was acting in self-defence after two trespassers were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made" and he was fearful and facing an "imminent attack" as the men closed in on him.
Mr Phelan went on trial last October after he pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith 'Bono' Conlon, 36, at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24, on February 24, 2022.
The defendant is a barrister, law lecturer and farmer who owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.
It was the defence case that this was an unintended killing and what Mr Phelan had been trying to achieve in discharging the shots was not to strike Mr Conlon.
The jury had heard on the day in question three men — the deceased Keith Conlon, along with Kallum Coleman and Robin Duggan — had trespassed on a wooded area of Mr Phelan's land while engaged in the illegal blood sport of badger baiting.
Mr Phelan told gardaí in his interviews he became concerned about a lurcher dog running loose on his land towards his sheep. When he got a view of the dog, he shot it with his Winchester rifle, whereupon he said three men immediately "exploded" from the woods and began threatening him.
Mr Phelan said he was shaking with fear and had "scrambled" up a bank to get away but when Mr Conlon and Mr Coleman kept coming he believed they were "coming to fulfil the threats they had made".
As they got closer, Mr Phelan shouted at the two trespassers on his farm to "get back" before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver and said he was "stunned when one man went down".
Mr Conlon, from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident on February 22 and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.