'I DUMPED BODY IN THE WELL'.

Byline: DIARMUID MAC DERMOTT

A MAN told gardai he threw his uncle's body down a well after his father killed him, a court heard yesterday.

Eugene Daly admitted to officers that he had gone to his uncle Paddy Daly's farm with his father to sort out "bad blood that started 30 years ago".

The Central Criminal Court heard the 29-year-old had made a statement in which he said: "Dad hit Paddy on the back of the head with the bar.

"Paddy slumped to the ground. Dad then hit him a few times when he was on the ground. He lay in a heap on the grass. There was blood trickling from his head.

"I went over to Paddy. I kicked him a number of times just to make sure he was dead."

Detective Superintendent John O'Mahony said Eugene Daly told gardai his father Sean Daly told Paddy he didn't like the way he was "going on" and there would be trouble if he didn't stop fighting.

Paddy told them to "get lost" and his father said: "I'll fix you."

He added: "Dad said if he didn't agree with us he would finish him off."

Daly said his father was in a temper. He saw his him picking up a brown bar from the tool room and he went up to Paddy who was facing away from him.

Asked if anything had been said, he replied: "Paddy just said, 'What' startled like, just before he got the first belt."

Daly was asked when he knew his uncle was dead and he replied: ''I presumed when I was dragging him and there was no noise out of him." He said that his father told him to tidy up and he dragged his uncle's body down to the well by the shoulders.

Daly added: "I lifted up the cover of the well and let him fall in head first. I heard a splash when I dropped him in."

He told how he then filled the well with plastic and stones and put sand on top a few minutes after he put his uncle in it.

Daly said that he cleaned the blood from dragging the body with a rag and water and then cleaned blood from the yard with a brush.

Det Supt O'Mahony said that the accused made a statement at Killarney Garda station on February 8, 1996.

Daly, of Dooneen, Kilcummin, Killarney, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his 69-year-old uncle on January 18, 1996.

The prosecution claimed he helped in burying his uncle's body in the well after his father attacked him in a row over family land.

Earlier retired Garda Henry Purcell said that he went to the farm after Paddy was reported missing on January 20, 1996.

He said that he met Eugene, his brother Jim and their father Sean, who is now dead, at the farm.

Gda Henry had asked if there was a well and the Dalys took him to it. Jim pulled back the concrete cover and the officer told the court how he was surprised by the softness of the sand in the well.

The trial before Mr Justice Abbott continues today.

CAPTION(S):

TRIAL: Eugene Daly outside Central Criminal Court yesterday