Freddie Thompson pleads not guilty to Dublin murder

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

Freddie Thompson has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Douglas. Mr Douglas was shot on Bridgefoot Street in Dublin on 1 July 2016. The proceedings at the Special Criminal Court were reported on 8 May 2018.

The prosecution did not argue that Mr Thompson physically carried out the killing, but alleged that he was in one of a number of spotter cars used in the shooting. Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane said the prosecution case was that four vehicles and their occupants, including Mr Thompson, were operating together.

Forensic scientist Sarah Fleming testified that a DNA profile from an inhaler in a Mitsubishi and from an air freshener and hand sanitiser in a Ford Fiesta matched Mr Thompson’s. She estimated the chance of finding the profile if the DNA had come from someone unrelated to him at considerably less than one in 1,000 million. No DNA profile could be obtained from the gun or cartridges found at the scene.

Professor Marie Cassidy gave Mr Douglas’s cause of death as gunshot injuries to his head, neck and trunk. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding with Judge Flannan Brennan and Judge Gerard Griffin, had begun hearing a legal issue about the admissibility of prosecution evidence. The trial was continuing.