Defence barrister accuses gardaí of 'fit up'
The barrister of a Tipperary man accused of murder has described his client’s prosecution as "a good old-fashioned fit up" by Clonmel gardaí.
Michael Delaney SC was giving his closing speech to a Central Criminal Court jury in the trial of John Paul Buck (aged 29) of Heywood Close, Clonmel.
Mr Buck has pleaded not guilty to stabbing 30-year-old Fergus Roche to death at a house in Heywood Close on October 1, 2005 and then setting fire to the vacant house.
Mr Delaney asked the jury to bear in mind that Clonmel garda station was not above reproach.
“It was the subject of a statutory inquiry some years ago whereby a 14-year-old boy was unlawfully in custody overnight and found in a coma the next day,” he said, adding that it gave him no personal pleasure to make such statements.
He also said there could be any number of people with a motive to kill Fergus Roche due to his criminal activity. He reminded the jury that Mr Roche was awaiting trial for his part in an armed burglary, in which a family was bound and gagged.
Earlier, Mr Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, reminded the jury of Friday’s evidence by Detective Garda Larry Bergin, who said Mr Buck admitted to him that he stabbed Mr Roche once in the chest while he was sleeping because he had "grassed him up".
Mr Vaughan Buckley said other evidence corroborated this, including lies the accused told.
He pointed to different accounts he gave of his movements, first telling gardaí he had not seen Mr Roche that night, and then saying he had seen him for five minutes.
He named witnesses who testified that they saw both man together that night, at different times and in different locations.
Other corroboration, he said, included the evidence of the dead man’s partner, Susan Farrell, who said Mr Buck had previously shown the couple a knife similar to the one in evidence.
There was also the fact that Mr Buck’s house key was found near the knife in the room where the fire started, he said.
He pointed to a motive involving missing drugs. Ms Farrell testified that when both men were packing drugs in her kitchen, Mr Buck mentioned that there was a kilo missing.
He also reminded the jury that Mr Buck’s hair was singed on the day of the murder and fire.
“You saw the fire start (on CCTV footage). Someone ran away and tried to take off the top they were wearing,” he said.
He recalled that neighbour Lilly Spillane said she heard but didn’t see both men arguing outside the vacant house that night. She said she heard John Paul Buck tell Fergus Roche to “shut it and keep it shut” and that Mr Roche replied that he wasn’t going to say anything.
Mr Delaney said nobody could be convicted on lies alone and there were many reasons that people lied.
“It doesn’t mean they’ve committed a crime,” he said, pointing to the example of Kayleigh Looby and Caroline O’Donnell, who admitted in court that they lied in their first statements to gardaí.
“Neither had anything to hide,” he said.
He said John Paul Buck and his brother, Alan Buck, were suspects from an early stage.
“It’s then understandable why John Paul Buck would try to minimise his level of contact with Fergus Roche that night,” he suggested.
He warned the jury to be cautious about Mrs Spillane’s evidence of voice recognition.
He said it was late at night, Mrs Spillane was so distressed by fireworks being let off that she called gardaí, and she was suffering from an ear infection and headache. He added that her husband heard nothing.
Mr Delaney described as ‘outlandish’ Susan Farrell’s claim that she had slept with John Paul Buck, her first cousin.
“The fact she’d make that allegation gives you an insight into the type of person we’re dealing with here,” he said. “I don’t believe we’re dealing with a rational person.”
He said one might ask why she would make it up.
“The world inhabited by Susan Farrell is so troubled and dysfunctional that it is futile to speculate about her motives,” he said.
He pointed out that the alleged confession to Det. Gda Bergin was allegedly made in his patrol car and not recorded. He described such evidence as “a throw back to the old days” before confessions were made in a controlled environment.
“When you boil it down, the prosecution’s case amounts to a dodgy confession and a dubious identification of a knife,” he concluded.
Mr Justice George Bermingham has now begun charging the jury of six men and six women, who are expected to begin deliberations tomorrow.
