Wells murder trial: Accused claims Kenneth O'Brien offered €20,000 to kill mother of his child

A Dubliner, who shot his friend dead and ‘chopped him into pieces’ claimed the dead man had offered him €20,000 to kill the mother of his child.

The Central Criminal Court heard the evidence this morning, Friday, October 26, in the murder trial of Paul Wells Snr. The jury was listening to memos of his garda interviews following his arrest on suspicion of murder with a firearm.

The 50-year-old of Barnamore Park in Finglas has admitted shooting dead fellow Dubliner Kenneth O’Brien and dismembering his body. However, the father-of-five has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 33-year-old at his home in Barnamore Park on 15th or 16th January, 2016.

He claims that the deceased had wanted him to murder Mr O’Brien’s partner, so that he could take their child back to Australia, where he had previously lived.

He told gardai that Mr O’Brien had brought a gun to his house for this purpose but that he didn’t want to do it. He said this resulted in a scuffle between them, that the gun fell, they both tried to get it, but that he got to it first and shot his friend in the back of the head.

He said that he then panicked and ‘chopped him into pieces’ with a chainsaw Mr O’Brien had lent him previously.

The trial has already heard that Mr O'Brien had transferred more than €50,000 into the accused man’s bank account, while working in Australia over the previous 18 months. Mr Wells told gardai that the deceased had asked him to hide this money for him, and that he used to withdraw it and give Mr O’Brien the cash.

“How did he look after you for that?” asked gardai. “He didn’t look after me. I just did him a favour,” he replied. “He was prepared to give me 20 grand for doing that for him.”

“Doing that?” asked his interviewers. “Killing Eimear,” he said, referring to Mr O’Brien’s partner, Eimear Dunne.

They asked if Mr O’Brien had brought the money with him when he arrived to Barnamore on the night he killed him. “It would have been after it was done,” he replied, adding that he wasn't going to do it in any case.

“Were you ever worried he’d do it himself?” he was asked. “Not himself, he’d be too cute for that,” he replied.

He said that the gun wasn’t fully loaded that night, but that ‘there were 3 or 4 in it’. He didn’t know how many bullets he had fired, but the the court has already heard that just one bullet was recovered from Mr O’Brien’s head.

“I was that close to him. I couldn’t have missed him,” he remarked. He had already told gardai that Mr O’Brien had the gun in his waistband and that it had fallen during the scuffle.

However, his interviewers put it to him that if the deceased had come to his home to give him the weapon, wouldn’t it have been ‘a natural progression’ that he’d have given it to him?

“I wasn’t having any hand act or part in doing anything that he wanted to have done,” he replied. “If I was to take it off him, I would be symbolically telling him I was up for it, which I was not.”

He insisted that the gun had fallen to the ground during the scuffle. “Ken reached for the gun,” he had said in his first admission. “I struggled to get to the gun first as I thought he was going to shoot me first.”

However, he said he’d got to the gun first and shot his friend. “I pulled the gun a number of times,” he said. “Click, click click and he he died instantly.”

The gardai put it to him that there was no point in Mr O’Brien hurting him if he was going to kill Ms Dunne for him.

“I was there. I know what happened. I’ve told you what happened. Make of it what you will,” he replied. He said that, if he was planning to kill him, he’d have found somewhere other than the home where his family lived and where his child played in the back garden.

“You know he just wanted a patsy to do the poor girl,” he said. “I was close to him. I was close to him. Why would I do that to (Mr O’Brien’s child).

“That’s what happened, as God is my judge. I’ve to live with this for the rest of my life,” he said. “I’ve lost everything... For what? A split second of my life.”

He spoke of dismembering Mr O’Brien’s remains. “The way I disposed of that man was deplorable,” he said. He said that he might have done something else ‘if my head was on properly’.

“It’s not like I go around every week and do this,” he remarked. “It’s been a continual nightmare and I’m burnt out at this stage,” he added.

He said he had no doubt that ‘stuff’ would come out about Mr O’Brien’s character during the investigation. “What he asked me to do with was wrong,” he said. “Kill Eimear, somebody I laughed with, got on with, had a pint with.”

The trial continues on Tuesday.