Accused told son not to come home on night man who was later found dismembered in canal was killed

The witness also told his father’s murder trial that when he returned home the following morning, the accused was powerwashing the ground behind their house.

The court had already heard that this was the address where the deceased was shot dead, before his remains were dismembered and found in a canal.

Gary Wells gave evidence to the Central Criminal Court today on the fourth day of his father’s trial.

Paul Wells Senior, 50, of Barnamore Park, Finglas, has admitted shooting Kenneth O’Brien dead and dismembering his body.

However, he has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old at his home in Barnamore Park on January 15 or 16, 2016.

He told Gardai that the deceased had wanted him to murder Mr O’Brien’s partner.

Gary Wells testified that he was 21 at the time and living at home in Barnamore Park with his parents and younger brother.

His car had broken down so his father gave him a lift to work in Clondalkin on Friday morning, January 15.

“That morning when I was leaving, he did tell me not to come home that night,” he testified.

The witness told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, that he used to stay with his partner and child nearby on a Friday and Saturday night anyway.

He said that, as his father was dropping him at his workplace, he again told him not to come home.

“He said he had a friend coming over,” he added.

“He rang me during that morning… just to make sure I wasn’t coming home that night, to go straight to my partner’s,” he testified.

He said that it was not usual for his father to ring him at work.

His mother had also left home that morning.

“My mother went down to visit my sister. She lives down in Cork. She was going down to drop down Christmas presents,” he explained.

“She got a lift to the train station from my father. She was to return on the Sunday.”

His younger brother was also in Cork that weekend, he added later.

The witness stayed with his partner and child as planned that night.

He returned home the following morning to meet a friend, who was selling him a new car. His father had lent him the €1,200 for the purchase.

“I walked into the kitchen and my father was out the back,” he recalled.

He was standing just outside the decking, power-hosing the ground.

He said that he also saw two bottles of bleach in the area.

Gary Wells stayed with his partner again that night and had gone to wash his new car when his father rang him that Sunday. The accused was ringing from outside his partner’s house.

“That was very out of the ordinary,” remarked the witness, who returned to his partner’s home.

He said his father had asked him if she had room in her shed for some stuff. The witness said she hadn’t.

He said his father had also asked him to come home as he needed to talk to him.

“He went into the shed. He came back out with a big bag,” he said. “It had a cable tie around the top of it.”

He said that he wasn't able to see inside, but formed the view that it contained a chainsaw.

He said that his father asked him to bring it to another man’s house and that he did so.

He said that there had been layers of carpet in his father’s shed and that he had noticed that day that some of it was missing.

“I could see concrete,” he recalled.

He said that, later that evening, his father had asked him if he could take away some bags of rubbish from his shed. He agreed.

“He brought the bags out to my car,” he explained. “One of the bags had cardboard…. There was a red stain on one of the pieces of cardboard.”

Gary Wells said that he had known Kenneth O’Brien and recalled his father’s reaction when it emerged that he had died.

“He said he thought it was terrible what had happened and that they’d probably come to speak to him as precaution,” he said.

He was cross examined by Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, who said there was no dispute about there being a chainsaw in the bag he had moved for his father.

The witness agreed that by the time of his brother, Paul’s, stag in Riga on January 22 “the finger of suspicion (regarding the killing), even within the family, was pointing at him”.

He agreed that this was a very difficult situation for the family.

“The guards were talking to known associates of Kenneth O’Brien. They were getting close to your father,” noted Mr O’Higgins.

He suggested that his client was telling his family that “they’ll be coming for me soon”.

“He was very edgy,” replied Mr Wells.

When asked about his normal routine of staying in his partner’s house at the weekend anyway, he said that he would usually go home from work first to change.

Mr O’Higgins read from his statements, where he said his father had asked him if he was alright to stay in his girlfriend’s house that night.

“There are nuances. One is an order. The other is, ‘is that alright’,” suggested the barrister.

However, Mr O’Higgins said that he wanted to make it clear that the impression that his client didn’t want him in the house at tea time was “an accurate impression”.

“It’s more the tone that my father speaks,” said the witness

Mr O’Higgins suggested that he was wrong when he said that his father had told him that he had a friend coming over.

“No, it was said to me,” he insisted.

In re-examination, Mr Gillane asked him what he had meant about his father’s tone.

“His tone, the way he speaks to people. It’s an aggressive tone,” he replied.

Mr O’Brien’s partner, Eimear Dunne, had earlier concluded her evidence.

Mr O’Higgins had begun his cross examination of her by telling her that his client’s case was that her partner had wanted him to kill her.

Mr O’Higgins noted that the couple’s home CCTV system had been switched off on Thursday morning January 14.

She confirmed to him that Paul Wells Snr had known on Sunday January 17 that it was not working.

Mr O’Higgins suggested that he must have learnt this from Mr O’Brien.

However, Mr Justice Paul McDermott interjected before she had a chance to respond.

“That’s a comment,” he said.

The trial continues tomorrow morning before a jury of five women and six men.

A 12th juror was discharged earlier, after she discovered that she knew somebody mentioned in evidence.