Strabane bus driver pleads not guilty to Donegal murder
- Published
A Strabane man has pleaded not guilty at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin to murdering 27-year-old Andrew Burns at a church car park in Donegal in February 2008.
Mr Burns, who also lived in Strabane, was shot twice in the back.
The court was told that 36-year-old Martin Kelly, a bus-driver from Barrack Street in Strabane, was part of a "joint enterprise" to lure Mr Burns to the car park at Doneyloop in Donegal.
He denies the charge.
The prosecution told the court the shooting was heard by a group of five young people who were were walking in the area on 12 February 2008.
The court was also told that Mr Burns had spent the day at the home of his elderly parents, three miles outside Strabane, and they dropped him back to the town at around quarter to seven that evening.
The prosecution lawyer said the young people said they heard two shots being fired in the Doneyloop area at around ten past seven.
He said they saw a silver car drive in the direction of the car park which then drove past them at high speed.
Later they saw the body of Mr Burns on the road.
An ambulance was called but he was pronounced dead by a doctor a short time later.
The prosecution told the court that Mr Kelly was arrested in Milford in Donegal in February 2010 and was taken to Letterkenny Garda Station where he underwent over seventeen hours of interviews.
The lawyer said Mr Kelly made a number of statements to Gardai and the court was told that the defence are challenging the admissibility of the alleged statements on the grounds that they were not made voluntarily.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.