The man accused of the murder of a Detective in Castlerea two years ago claimed he'd been set up to be shot when interviewed by Gardaí.
Stephen Silver of Foxford in Mayo has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility of Detective Garda Colm Horkan in Roscommon on the 17th of June 2020, while denying a charge of capital murder.
The jury in the trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin watched footage from Mister Silver's second Garda interview this afternoon. After spending a number of hours with two detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Castlerea Garda Station on June the 18th, 2020, Stephen Silver claimed 'This is a set up, now that I'm going through it all, its a set up'.
Addressing Detective Sergeant Brian Hanly and Detective Garda Paddy Farrell, he asked why Garda cars had appeared so quickly at the scene and were they ready to respond?
The video footage played in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermot and the jury showed the defendant in the interrogation room at Castlerea Garda Station claiming he had been set up to be shot that night, before asking "why would you want to shoot a man going to get a pizza"? Shortly after this exchange, Mr Silver ceased answering questions and responding to questions from the detectives, leading both to repeatedly enquire about his welfare.
After close to 12 minutes, Stephen Silver responded to Gardaí and requested tea before stating that he'd been sleeping due to exhaustion. He accused the interviewing Gardaí of harassing him and depriving him of his sleep before again referencing conditions in his cell.
Mr Silver then asked if his possession of a gun was so great as to deserve this treatment, which Gardaí responded yes to.
He then shouted at the interviewers that "ye forced me to do it, by sending (him) to shoot me. I was walking to Apache Pizza. I like bows and arrows, ye like guns and getting fat".
Minutes later when asked how he got possession of the gun, he answered 'it's not my fault your detectives can't hold onto their guns.' Later saying 'I see it all over the shop here today, a lack of training, incompetence.' Stephen Silver then claimed that all he did was defend himself against armed assault and that he was beyond annoyed.
