Court told of shotgun blast at woman's car
A court was told this morning that a shotgun was fired at a car belonging to a woman who has been advised three times by the police that her life might be in danger.
Two men appeared at a special sitting of the Magistrate's Court in Derry charged with threatening to kill the forty-one years old woman and with unlawfully detaining her in her housing association home at Hawthorn Grove in the Springtown Road area of the city last weekend.
Paul Cecil Hutcheon (32), and Gavin Thomas Deery (31), both from Glenowen Park, deny the charges. The defendant Deery denies a further charge of assaulting a police officer on Monday.
About twenty people, among them prominent dissident republicans, were in court for the remand hearing. Two dozen police officers were also in court and a similar number of officers were outside the Bishop Street courthouse.
A detective told District Judge Barney McElholm that, in July of last year, a shotgun was fired at the woman's car and that last June, July and in January of this year, as a result of information they had received, the police told the complainant that her life might be in danger.
"We have concerns about this woman's safety", he said.
The police witness said that the defendant Hutcheon was alleged to have said to the complainant "see you, you are dead" and that the defendant Deery allegedly said "he wanted her shot on sight".
Releasing the defendants on bail to appear in court again on March 8, the District Judge said the court could not be blind to reality.
"Even if I was to remand them in custody, I have no doubt they could communicate with the outside world. They obviously have many supporters who are at liberty to do whatever they please as long as they are not caught. Unfortunately, it is impossible to protect witnesses twenty-four hours per day. The most we can do is to try to police bail conditions", he said.
As part of their bail conditions, both defendants will be electronically tagged and both must live at agreed bail addresses, the defendant Deery at Rathlin Gardens and the defendant Hutcheon at Cornshell Fields.
The District Judge also warned the defendants and their "associates" not to attempt to contact the complainant nor her family and said if anyone did so he would immediately remand both defendants in custody.
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Weather for Derry
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 29 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 24 C
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