Career criminal serving life for murder of father-of-eight appeals conviction

A career criminal serving a life sentence for the murder of a father-of-eight has argued that a North Face jacket containing gunshot residue that was central to his conviction ought to have been excluded from evidence as it was improperly stored by the gardaí.  

“Without this jacket and the firearm residue there could not have been a prosecution for murder against him,” said Dean Kelly SC at the Court of Appeal on Thursday, launching an appeal on behalf of Robert Redmond (36).  

Redmond, of Streamville Road, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, is serving life imprisonment for the murder of Barry Wolverson (40) at Madigan's Yard, Killeek Lane, Swords, Co Dublin, on January 17, 2020. He had denied the charge.    

The murder trial heard that Mr Wolverson (40) was a businessman who rented space at Madigan's Yard in Swords in north Dublin. At the time of his shooting, his partner was expecting a child, whom he never saw. He also has four children and three stepchildren.  

Mr Wolverson and Gerard Wildman were sitting in a car at the yard shortly before midday when Mr Wolverson was shot several times. Mr Wolverson eventually died from cardiac arrest after being treated in a residential care facility while in a comatose state for 13 months.  

Redmond was given a life sentence for the murder at the Special Criminal Court, five years on a charge of assault causing harm on Mr Wildman, and 12 years for the possession of firearms and ammunition. Redmond's co-accused Bernard Fogarty, with an address at Cromcastle Court, Kilmore, Coolock, Dublin 5, was also sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Mr Wolverson.  

At Redmond’s appeal today, Mr Kelly said that one of the exhibits in the case, a North Face jacket, may potentially have been contaminated because of the manner in which it was preserved by the gardaí.  

He said that Dr John O’Shaughnessy of Forensic Science Ireland had given evidence at the trial of finding gunshot particles on the jacket, but the permissibility of this evidence depended on the prosecution first addressing the issue of contamination.  

Mr Kelly said that a garda gave evidence at the trial that the jacket was inadequately bagged and preserved from the time he took it from the appellant and sealed it with “three or four staples”, accepting that he ought to have done otherwise.  

Mr Kelly said that the bag containing the jacket was placed in the boot of the garda car, then later removed from that bag, put into a nylon bag, and finally replaced back in a brown paper bag.  

He said that Dr O’Shaugnessy confirmed that the manner in which the bag was sealed was not in best practice, adding that contamination of the jacket could not be ruled out, as the bag had been placed in the boot of a garda car, and it was accepted that garda cars are sometimes used for the transport of firearms.  

“This was the piece of evidence by some distance that convicted him of murder,” said Mr Kelly. “Without this jacket and the firearm residue there could not have been a prosecution for murder against him.”  

Mr Kelly said that the presence of gunshot residue in and of itself does not prove the appellant’s presence at the scene of the shooting, which meant the court fell into error in the weight it placed on that item of evidence.  

Mr Kelly said that the doctor was being asked for his opinion, assuming that both Redmond and his co-accused were there at the scene, as to who he thought had shot the victim. Counsel said this had been a wholly inappropriate opinion to go to the court, as it proceeded on the basis of the appellant’s guilt.   

“It assumes him to be part of a murder gang there to carry out a murder, so that opinion should have been excluded,” said Mr Kelly.  

He said there was never a point where any other evidence was presented to put Redmond in that yard, so the ultimate finding of guilt came about because of the North Face jacket.   

Counsel for the DPP, Paul Greene SC, said that the day before the shooting, the two accused men were seen on CCTV, with Redmond wearing the North Face jacket. The following day, half an hour after the shooting, the two men were arrested in a housing estate 200m away from a burnt-out vehicle, the same vehicle that drove them into Madigan’s yard, with Redmond wearing the same jacket. Mr Greene said there was an unbroken chain of evidence to show that the two men went from the estate to the yard and back again, while there was also witness evidence from someone who saw “a tattooed man” in a red vehicle, with Redmond shown to have similar tattoos.   

Mr Greene said that the defence was asking the court for “an unwarranted degree of engaging in speculation” concerning the possibility of the jacket being contaminated. He said there was no evidence of gunshot residue in the boot of the garda car or the floor of the garda station, with the jacket bagged, stapled up, and then re-bagged promptly.  

He said that Dr O’Shaughnessy had told the trial that there was a possibility of contamination, but there was still “a significant corpus of residue” on the jacket. Mr Greene went on to say that the witness gave his opinion on the garda theory that the gunman was either Redmond or Fogarty, adding that the doctor was allowed to make a factual assessment.  

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that the court would reserve judgement in the case.  

Redmond, who has 99 previous convictions, is also serving a seven-year sentence - to be served consecutive to his 12-year term for possession of a firearm in the murder of Mr Wolverson - for conspiring to gun down a drug dealer who owed him €70,000. 

Father-of-one Jordan Davis was shot dead while pushing his four-month-old son in a pram in broad daylight five years ago. A text conversation revealed that Mr Davis had owed a drug debt to Redmond amounting to €70,000.  

Redmond was originally charged with the murder of Mr Davis, who was fatally shot by a gunman on a bike while pushing his four-month-old son's buggy in a laneway beside Our Lady of Immaculate National School in Darndale.   

Mr Davis suffered three gunshot wounds including one to the head that killed him instantly.