Garda says he ‘never saw or took cash off’ shot Taylor
Murder trial hears from officer on scene of killing
A GARDA who took Pete Taylor’s clothing after the latter was shot at Bray Boxing Club has told a court he ‘never saw or took any cash’ belonging to Mr Taylor.
Garda Glenn McLoughlin, who was the first responder at the scene after Bobby Messett was shot dead, said the boxing coach was not wearing any tracksuit bottoms in the ambulance or hospital as his right leg was exposed.
‘They weren’t taken off him in my presence,’ he added.
Mr Taylor testified earlier this week that he had complained to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman
‘Quite obviously been wounded’
Commission (GSOC) after his runners and tracksuit bottoms, containing between €200 and €400, were removed from him at the scene and never returned.
Ultimately, GSOC dismissed his complaint, he said.
Mr Taylor’s partner, Karen Brown, previously told the jurors that she remembered seeing a blonde male garda holding a blue plastic bag containing Mr Taylor’s tracksuit bottoms and runners. She said she saw the same garda at St Vincent’s Hospital later that day with the bag still in his hand.
Gerard Cervi, 34, from the East Wall area of Dublin 3, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Messett, 50, at Mr Taylor’s Bray Boxing Club in Co. Wicklow during an early morning fitness session on June 5, 2018.
Mr Cervi also denies the attempted murder of Mr Taylor and Ian Britton on the same occasion. Garda McLoughlin, who was attached to Bray Garda Station in June 2018, told prosecuting counsel Paul Murray SC yesterday that when he arrived at the boxing club at around 7am on June 5, Ian Britton was sitting on a wall with a wound to his leg and a number of other people were in a distressed state. He was informed that there were other people injured inside the club and that a gunman had fled the scene. The garda went upstairs where he saw Mr Taylor, ‘who had quite obviously been wounded’, lying on his back, the court heard.
Gym-goer Eddie McCann, who was attending to Mr Taylor, pointed out Mr Messett to him.
Garda McLoughlin was unable to find a pulse on Mr Messett so he laid the deceased back down in the pool of blood.
The witness accompanied Mr Taylor in an ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital along with a paramedic. When they arrived at the triage area of the hospital, Garda McLoughlin said, a staff member removed Mr Taylor’s items of clothing and Garda McLoughlin placed them into plastic bags, then later transferred the clothing into evidence bags.
He said he took a grey sports top and a pair of trainers from the boxing trainer. Asked specifically by Mr Murray about the items of clothing taken from Mr Taylor, Garda McLoughlin said he was at the coach’s bedside that afternoon, where staff were medically treating him. ‘I told him that I needed his clothes and they removed them and I put them into plastic bags and later put them into evidence bags,’ he replied.
He confirmed to Mr Murray that the sports top and trainers were the only items he had taken from Mr Taylor ‘at any time’. Under cross-examination, Garda McLoughlin agreed with AnneMarie Lawlor SC, defending, that his intention when he took Mr Taylor’s clothing was to preserve evidence. He said there were blood-stains on the clothing, which may have had forensic evidence on them, so he placed the items in plastic bags to avoid cross-contamination. When asked if it would be normal practice to put evidence into plastic bags, Garda McLoughlin said he did not have any evidence bags on him at the time and that it was ‘the best I could do in the circumstances’.
The barrister put it to the witness that Mr Taylor had made a complaint to GSOC and said that gardaí had taken his clothing and put them into a blue bag. Ms Lawlor asked the witness if the boxing coach was right about this. ‘I seized items of clothing from him and put them into plastic bags. I can’t say what colour the plastic bags were,’ he replied. .
When asked if the statement he gave to GSOC in March 2020 was a significant event, Garda McLoughlin said: ‘It is but when you know you have done nothing wrong, you’re not concerned about it. I was asked if I was aware of any bottoms or if I seized any; I told them I wasn’t.’
The witness agreed that he was only interviewed by GSOC for one purpose and that was to discuss the disappearance of Mr Taylor’s tracksuit bottoms, money and the treatment of evidence garnered at the shooting scene. ‘They asked me about cash, I said I didn’t seize or see any cash, they wanted to know about the cash,’ he said.
The garda confirmed that he was the only person who had seized clothing off Mr Taylor that day and said ‘the matter was investigated and I was cleared of it’.
The trial at the Central Criminal Court continues tomorrow in front of Judge Michael White and a jury of three men and nine women.
‘The matter was investigated’