A GARDA FOLLOWED trails leading from the back of a murder accused’s home across fields to a wooded area where she found a gun with a silencer and magazine buried in the soil, a trial at the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Garda Mairead Lacey gave evidence in the trial of James ‘Jimmy’ Lammon of Cardington Way, Athy, Co Kildare. Lammon has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Jason Doogue (22) in the Green Hills area of Athy on August 21, 2015.
Garda Lacey told prosecuting counsel Kerida Naidoo SC that she was part of a team tasked with searching the area around Lammon’s home in Cardington Way four days after the shooting that left Doogue dead.
At the bottom of Lammon’s garden, she said she spotted a gap in the hedge leading into a neighbouring field. From there she followed a foot-worn trail that led her to an area known locally as Shaw’s Wood.
The wood was surrounded by barbed wire but she noticed at one point the wire had been cut and a narrow pathway worn into the undergrowth.
When she walked through she saw another path which she followed until she spotted a small circular hole in the ground that was three-quarters full.
Digging down with her hands she found a navy bag containing a small handgun, a magazine and a silver silencer. She said there were three bullets in the magazine.
Black tool-box
Garda Lacey said the distance from Lammon’s home to where she found the items was about 750 metres. During subsequent searches of the wooded area Garda Lacey told defending counsel Mary Rose Gearty that two plastic pipes containing pills and another pipe containing two rifles were also discovered.
Garda Lacey also found two leaves stained with what she believed to be blood.
The jury was also shown a bike that was recovered from the River Barrow by Garda Gerard O’Daly days after the shooting. Garda O’Daly told Naidoo that he is a diver with the Garda Water Unit and he discovered the grey mountain bike on the river bed.
Garda John Whelan told Naidoo that he is part of the Garda Dog Unit and he discovered two latex gloves in a gorse bush beside a farm gate after following a trail leading from Lammon’s home for about 1.5 kilometres.
He said the gloves seemed unusual because it had been raining but the gloves were dry. The gloves were also shown to the jury.
Earlier, the court heard from Paul Day, who said he was going out with James Lammon’s sister Rebecca in August 2015. He said that he was at her home in Carbury Park on 21 August painting ornamental ducks in the front garden when Rebecca approached him with a bucket containing a black tool-box.
He told Naidoo that he took the bucket containing the black tool box to his own home in nearby Dooley Terrace and left it there. He said that he later helped gardaí to find the tool box, showing them where he had put it.
Another witness, Dylan Gorman, told Naidoo that he was also at Rebecca Lammon’s house that afternoon. He said they were “dossing around drinking tea” and some time after 3pm Rebecca’s phone rang. He said she went around to a back alley and when she returned she was “panicking with a bucket in her hand”. He said she told Day to get rid of it and that she didn’t want it in the house. Day walked away with the bucket.
The trial continues tomorrow in front of a jury and Justice Paul Butler.
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