‘Fearful, stressed and overwhelmed’ – Diarmuid Phelan trial hears evidence from witness to fatal farm shooting Two trespassers had turned around and were running away when top lawyer Diarmuid Phelan shot one of them in the back, a witness told his murder trial yesterday.

The witness told the Central Criminal Court she remembered feeling ‘fearful, stressed and overwhelmed’ after Phelan shot Mr Conlon Hannah Felgner, 21, had been working on the leading senior counsel’s Hazelgrove Farm in Tallaght, Dublin, when Keith Conlon, 35, was shot in February 22, 2022.She told the Central Criminal Court she remembered feeling “fearful, stressed and overwhelmed” after Phelan shot Mr Conlon, who died two days later in hospital.

Ms Felgner, who had been working on the law professor’s farm for two days after travelling from her native Germany, said at first she thought the accused’s gun wasn’t real.

And it was only when father-of-four Conlon fell face-first into a hole and she saw blood coming from his head that she realised the weapon was real.

Phelan, 56, from Hazelgrove Farm, has pleaded not guilty to Mr Conlon’s murder on February 24, 2022. He claims he fired his gun in self-defence and that Mr Conlon was killed accidentally.He said: “Shooting, shooting, shooting. A farmer’s after shooting my friend. He’s after shooting my friend from point-blank range.”

Trial continues before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and a jury of nine men and three women.