One of the four men on trial for murder owed €9,000 to victim, court hears

One of the four family members on trial for murder owed €9,000 to the man they are accused of beating to death, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

One of the four men on trial for murder owed €9,000 to victim, court hears

By Eoin Reynolds

One of the four family members on trial for murder owed €9,000 to the man they are accused of beating to death, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Dean Reilly (19), the son of the deceased, took the stand today and revealed that he used to be best friends with the men on trial for his dad's murder, but they fell out over the debt.

He said he didn't know what the debt was for but accepted that his father spent time in prison for drugs' possession and that it could have been a drug debt.

He also confirmed that his father broke into the Bradley home looking for his money about five weeks before he died from chop wounds to the head, limbs and torso and with crush injuries that a pathologist said were consistent with being run over by a car.

Paul Bradley (54) and his sons Jason (20), Dean (24), and Ryan (18), of Liscarne Gardens, Dublin 22, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Neil Reilly (36) at Esker Glebe in Lucan, Dublin on January 18, 2017.

Mr Reilly told prosecution counsel Paul Murray SC that he knew the Bradley family well. Mr Reilly's mother was not involved in his life and when his father was in prison the Bradley family welcomed him in.

He often ate dinner at their house and considered Ryan and Jason to be his closest friends. When Dean's father was preparing to get out of prison, Paul Bradley offered him a job at his garage on the Naas Road.

But there was a falling out with the Bradleys - he told Brendan Grehan SC, defence counsel for Paul Bradley - when Jason ran up debts of €9,000 to his father.

Witness and son of the deceased, Dean Reilly, pictured at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today. Picture: Collins Courts
Witness and son of the deceased, Dean Reilly, pictured at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today. Picture: Collins Courts

While he accepted the debt could have been for drugs, he didn't know anything about his father being a drug dealer and never saw him with drugs. He said his father made money buying and selling cars and breeding dogs.

When Mr Grehan suggested that Dean's father once threatened to "blow Jason's knees off" if he didn't get his money, the witness said he didn't think his father would say that.

He said such a threat would be "harsh" but his father might threaten someone who owed him money, to get their attention.

He further accepted that he might "lean on" other members of a family to get his money back and that he might break into their home and "wreck everything".

The witness broke down in tears as he identified his father on CCTV footage from the Bradley home, taken on December 13, 2016, showing the deceased and two men breaking in through the front door.

Mr Grehan suggested that the deceased was capable of "very great violence to get what he wanted" but the witness said he had never seen his father hit anyone.

He did accept that his father had fired two shots at the Bradley home on the night he died but said he did not intend to shoot any of the Bradleys. When Mr Grehan said his father was not a man who would back down the witness replied:

"No. He was a man."

Under cross-examination from Michael Bowman SC, for Jason Bradley, Mr Reilly accepted that on one occasion he went with his father and another man to a hotel where Jason Bradley worked.

He said his father wanted to "put a word on him and say I need the money" but he did not believe that his father threatened to blow Jason's knees off.

Mr Reilly also denied that when they were still friends he had done drugs with Jason Bradley and that some of the debt Jason owed to his father was for drugs he had taken.

On the night his father died, Mr Reilly told Mr Murray he was home with his father and another man but went to bed early because he had work the next day. He was woken that night by a call from the other man and got out of bed, walked towards Esker Glebe where he met members of the armed support unit.

When he arrived at the scene a garda told him not to look at his father but assured him he would be okay. Dean wasn't worried, believing his father would be fine.

When he learned that shots had been fired at the Bradley home earlier that morning, he "put one and one together" and pointed gardai to the Bradley garage on the Naas Road, where they found a car that the prosecution alleges drove over Mr Reilly.

He later found out his father was dead and identified the body.

Justice Paul Coffey asked the six men and six women of the jury to come back on Wednesday as a legal matter must be dealt with in their absence.

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