LAW PROFESSOR DIARMUID Phelan has been found not guilty of murdering a man who was trespassing on his farm in Tallaght in 2022.

Phelan walked from the Criminal Courts of Justice a free man this evening after the panel of nine men and three women returned their unanimous verdict to Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford.

The jurors had agreed with the defence case that Phelan was entitled to defend himself when he came under threat on his own land.

The jurors had spent six hours and 51 minutes over two days considering their verdict following a ten-week trial.

Phelan (56) went on trial last October after he pleaded not guilty to murdering father-of-four Keith ‘Bono’ Conlon (36) at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on 24 February 2022.

Phelan, a barrister, law lecturer and farmer, owns Hazelgrove, formerly a golf course in Tallaght.

He made no reaction as the 12 jurors left the courtroom but was later seen embracing his family.

Members of Keith Conlon’s family quickly left the courtroom as soon as the not guilty verdict was announced. In a statement issued afterwards, they asked for privacy and said they were hurt and disappointed by the verdict.

The jury rejected the State’s case that when the third shot was fired by Phelan, the gun was pointed in the direction of Keith Conlon, who was shot in the back of the head when it was argued he had turned away to leave.

It was in those circumstances, the prosecution said, that Phelan intended to either kill or cause serious injury to Keith Conlon.

Instead, the jurors accepted Phelan’s position that he was acting in self defence after two trespassers were “coming to fulfil the threats they had made” and that he was fearful and facing an “imminent attack” as the men closed in on him.

The jury had the option of returning three verdicts in relation to the murder charge against Phelan, namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.

However, there was a choice of three paths to the panel’s finding that Phelan was not guilty and entitled to an acquittal.

Firstly, if the jury found Phelan did intend to kill or seriously injure the trespasser, they had to consider the issue of self defence raised by the defendant.

If the jury considered a reasonable person would have used the degree of force employed by Phelan in the circumstances in which the accused genuinely believed them to be, Phelan was entitled to an acquittal on the basis of self defence.

If the jury found the prosecution had not proven Phelan had the intent to kill or cause serious injury and that he honestly believed he had to use force to protect himself and that the force used was reasonably necessary in the circumstances that Phelan believed them to be, the verdict was not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.

An acquittal could also be recorded if the jury found that Phelan did not intend to kill or seriously injure Keith Conlon, that he had an honest belief that force was necessary and that while the force he used was not reasonable, his actions were not objectively dangerous.

It was the defence case that this was an unintended killing and what Phelan had been trying to achieve in discharging the shots was not to strike Keith Conlon.

‘Free to go’

Following today’s unanimous verdict, Ms Justice Lankford thanked the jurors and exempted them from further jury service for life. “That does not mean you cannot serve but you do not have to,” she added.

The presiding judge said it had been a very long and difficult case and that the jury had been very dedicated in their service. “Thank you very much and I hope all goes well with all of you,” she concluded.

When the jury left the courtroom, Ms Justice Lankford turned to Phelan, asking: “I take it there is nothing further against Mr Phelan?”. She then said that Phelan was “free to go”.

Inside court, Phelan’s family and supporters hugged him as he prepared to return home this evening after being cleared of the charge.

In his closing address, Sean Guerin SC, defending, told the panel that trouble came “uninvited to the door” of Phelan and none of what occurred was the defendant’s creation.

Counsel said the killing of Keith Conlon was “a tragedy and a grievous waste of human life” but it did not happen because of any crime committed by Phelan.

The lawyer argued that Phelan was on trial for murder because of his “restraint, self-control, patience and quiet hope” that others would have respect for the law and “tragically” trespasser Keith Conlon was dead because he had no such respect.

Guerin also submitted in his closing speech that a person can use reasonable force to defend themselves and doesn’t have to “take the beating coming”.

He told the jury: “By your verdict, you will decide whether that last line of protection and that last vestige of safety remains available to us all as citizens”.

The jury had heard that on the day in question three men – the deceased Keith Conlon, along with Kallum Coleman and Robin Duggan – had trespassed on a wooded area of Phelan’s land while engaged in the illegal blood sport of badger baiting.

Phelan told gardaí in his interviews that he became concerned about a lurcher dog running loose on his land towards his sheep. When he got a view of the dog, he shot it with his Winchester rifle, whereupon he said three men immediately “exploded” from the woods and began threatening him.

Phelan said he was shaking with fear and had “scrambled” up a bank to get away but when Keith Conlon and Kallum Coleman kept coming he believed they were “coming to fulfil the threats they had made”.

As they got closer, Phelan shouted at the two trespassers on his farm to “get back” before he fired three shots from his Smith & Wesson revolver and said he was “stunned when one man went down”.

Keith Conlon (36), from Kiltalown Park in Tallaght, was seriously injured in the shooting incident and died at Tallaght University Hospital two days later.

It was the defence contention that the third bullet had accidentally hit Keith Conlon through a combination of factors including an unintended deviation in the alignment of the gun as a result of the repeated firing under stress and Keith Conlon’s movement uphill.

It was entirely possible, the defence argued, that the deceased had walked up the incline into a shot intended to clear his head. The defence also submitted that where Keith Conlon was stuck could have happened by him turning his head and not his body.