A prosecution witness who failed to turn up to give evidence at the murder trial of law professor Diarmuid Phelan has been arrested by arrangement and taken into custody by gardaí, the High Court has heard.
Liam Mulholland, senior prosecution solicitor with the Director of Public Prosecutions, told Mr Justice Liam Kennedy during a brief remand hearing that agreement had been reached with Kallum Coleman’s legal team for his remand in custody to appear at the Criminal Courts of Justice next week.
Barrister Keith Spencer, counsel for Mr Coleman, said his client was consenting to his remand in custody and added that gardaí had given an undertaking that he would be lodged in Mountjoy Prison until next Tuesday due to a fear by Mr Coleman for his safety if detained in Cloverhill Prison.
Mr Mulholland, confirming to the court that such an undertaking had been given, led garda evidence of Mr Coleman, from Drimnagh, Dublin, having been arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Mr Justice Kennedy heard Mr Coleman had been cautioned at the time of arrest.
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Mr Spencer said his client had been arrested by arrangement and he told the court that a jury in the trial of Diarmuid Phelan, for the alleged murder of trespasser Keith Conlon, had returned a verdict of not guilty last week.
[ How law professor Diarmuid Phelan was acquitted of the murder of a trespasserOpens in new window ]
Mr Coleman, who is not yet facing any charge, is likely to face one of contempt of court for having failed to turn up to give evidence at the murder trial, the court heard.
Mr Phelan, a senior counsel and law professor at Trinity College, walked free from the Central Criminal Court last week after the jury found him not guilty of the murder of Mr Conlon at Hazelgrove Farm, Kiltalown Lane, Tallaght, in February 2022.
During Phelan’s trial it was stated Mr Conlon’s fellow trespasser had been Kallum Coleman.
The trial heard they and another man had entered the lands as trespassers. Mr Conlon had been preparing to hunt badgers with the aid of a Jack Russell terrier and a lurcher dog, owned by Mr Coleman, which was shot by Mr Phelan.
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