Andrew Carey
DELIVERING “a message from John” is how the victim of a shooting described why a lone gunman stood outside his Westbury house firing a handgun into his bedroom where a nine month old baby girl slept.
During the trial of 27-year-old Anthony O’Donovan, who is charged with the possession of a firearm with the intent to endanger life, the victim and target of the shooting Mark Troy told the court that he is “now second guessing” himself after “third party approaches” made saying that he identified the wrong man as being the shooter at his home on September 28, 2013 last.
The accused man, Anthony O’Donovan, with an address at Aherlow Close, Old Cratloe Road, denies the charge and the trial opened with State Prosecution Counsel John O’Sullivan outlining that in the early hours of September 28 last year, up to three shots were fired into the Westbury house of Mark Troy. The house was occupied at the time with Mr Troy, his partner and five young children including a nine-month-old baby girl that was sleeping in the main bedroom.
In his evidence, 40-year-old Mark Troy told the jury of nine men and three women that he heard two loud bangs in the early hours and initially thought they were the baby intercom or a plug from his laptop blowing when it “cracked or banged”.
Mr Troy awoke and realising that the noises came from outside he looked out the window.
“I could just about see his face standing there – for the two seconds that I saw him it resembled Anthony O’Donovan”, explained Mr Troy as he described the shooter standing in his garden.
“I asked him what he was doing and told him to f**k off”, added Mr Troy explaining that he thought it was someone breaking windows.
“I thought it was Anthony O’Donovan – he mumbled something about John and a message and pointed what I thought was a handgun straight at me.”
Mr Troy said that he “ducked down” and a shot was fired through the window that hit the wardrobe in the front bedroom. His nine-month old baby also slept in the couple’s room at the time.
However, in his evidence, Mr Troy said that “in recent months I have been contacted by a neutral party to say that I was identifying the wrong man. I was told it was someone else so now I am second guessing myself”.
Pressing Mr Troy on his evidence and witness statement in the immediate aftermath of the event at the garda station, John O’Sullivan said that at the time he identified Anthony O’Donovan as the shooter – “you were very definite about that when you made your statement to gardai at Mayorstone”.
Mr Troy explained that; “Yes, at the time I believed it was him, but since then I’ve been told that it wasn’t and it was someone else. I was shown the face of another man on facebook and now I am not sure.”
Asked about what the shooter said, Mr Troy said that something was mumbled about “John or a message from John”.
In his evidence, Mark Troy said that the shooter was wearing a dark hoody and pointed a hand gun at him before he “ducked to take cover – I didn’t come up again and told my kids to get down. I called the gardai then.
Asked why he was targeted, Mr Troy said in his evidence from the witness box that he “stood up to a person in Moyross and I think it was something over that. I was getting hassle so it might be that.”
The trial continues before Judge Carroll Moran and is expected to last into next week.
