David Hunter pleads not guilty to Michael Barr murder

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

David Hunter is pleading not guilty to the murder of Michael Barr at the Special Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 21 July 2020. Barr was shot dead at a pub in Summerhill, Dublin, on 25 April 2016.

Dr Edward Connolly of Forensic Science Ireland told the court that the major contributor’s profile formed 61% of a mixed DNA profile on a ski-mask recovered from a burning car. He said the odds of the profile from an apple core and cigarette butt discarded by Hunter belonging to someone unrelated to the ski-mask’s major contributor were a thousand-million to one. Presiding judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens clarified with the witness that this referred to the profile being unrelated to Hunter’s.

Dr Connolly said comparisons involving a separate rubber mask could not exclude the samples from the apple core and cigarette butt and the ski-mask’s major-contributor profile. The non-jury court admitted prosecution phone evidence despite defence objections.