Mother was told she 'was digging her own grave' in Dundon trial
A mother-of-five was told she was digging her own grave and that it was “very easy to make people disappear” by a Limerick man accused of threatening to kill her and three of her children, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
Alice Collins (aged 48) was giving evidence in the trial of Wayne Dundon (aged 33), of Lenihan Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, who has pleaded not guilty to five counts relating to threatening to kill Ms Collins and her children Gareth, Jimmy and April, as well as two counts of obstructing the course of justice at addresses in Limerick city between September 2010 and March 2011.
Wayne Dundon’s brother John Dundon (aged 29), with an address at Hyde Road, Limerick, has pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill April Collins and making a threat to April to kill her mother Alice Collins at an address on Hyde Road on the weekend of April 3rd and 4th 2011.
Ms Collins told counsel for the State, Mr Tom O’Connell SC, that Wayne Dundon arrived outside her home on the evening of September 30th, 2010, after four women, including John Dundon’s wife Ciara, had attacked her car and home.
She said she had called the guards during the attack but after they arrived she had to beckon them inside her home as she felt she could not answer any questions about what had happened in front of Wayne Dundon.
Ms Collins said that, as community garda Niamh Keogh walked in to the house, she heard Wayne Dundon ask: “Why are the guards following her in to her house?”
She said she swapped phone numbers with Garda Keogh, went to Roxborough garda station to make a statement and then later that night returned to her home, where she washed the floors and left the front door open for them to dry.
Ms Collins said that sometime after eight o’clock Wayne Dundon walked in to her sitting room in a “very agitated state” and said his brother John was not happy and would “hunt people down” if his wife Ciara went to jail.
She said that Wayne Dundon asked if her son Jimmy went to a certain local pub every weekend before telling her John Dundon would “give some fool ten grand” to kill Jimmy.
Ms Collins said she “froze” at the mention of Jimmy’s name, and when she asked Wayne Dundon why he was picking on her “quiet” son, he replied: “It’s the quiet fellas who get it.”
She said Wayne Dundon then told her that his face would be the last her son Gareth Collins sees as he was “going to kill him myself”.
As he got up to leave the house, Ms Collins said Wayne Dundon told her: “You are digging your own grave; it’s very easy to make people disappear.”
Ms Collins said the alleged threats put the “fear of god” in to her, that she was “still not right” since the incident and that she had altered her living habits as a result.
She agreed with Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, for Wayne Dundon, that she had made a statement to gardai at Roxborough garda station on the evening of September 30th in relation to the attack on her house by John Dundon’s wife and three other women.
Ms Collins agreed that she kept a note of the timings of the alleged threats made by Wayne Dundon on the back of an envelope but told the court she may have confused what day of the week they actually occurred.
She agreed that a reference to the alleged threats occurring at eight o’clock on September 30th was correct to within a few minutes and said she could see no reason for the time to be wrong unless the watch or phone used to mark the time was also inaccurate.
When told of garda records that showed the recording of her statement at Roxborough station did not finish until 9:07pm on September 30th, approximately an hour after she alleged Wayne Dundon had threatened to kill her and her children, Ms Collins said she may have got the timing of the incident wrong.
She denied a suggestion that she was telling a “pack of lies” and told the court that although she may have gotten the timings wrong, she was not wrong in her evidence that Wayne Dundon had come to her house that night and threatened her.
Ms Collins denied a suggestion that it was “incredible” she had chosen not to make a statement on the alleged threats made by Wayne Dundon when making a statement to gardai about the attack on her home.
She denied that she had made the allegations to ensure Wayne Dundon was “off the scene” for a substantial period, telling Mr Dwyer that if the court convicted the accused man she “might stay alive a bit longer”.
Ms Collins said that she waited seven months after the alleged threats to make a statement against Wayne Dundon because she was in fear for her life, telling Mr Dwyer: “You don’t make a statement against him and survive it.”
The trial continues in front of presiding judge Mr Justice Paul Butler.
