WELL-KNOWN COACH Pete Taylor has described being shot in “mid-air” as he dived over a gym-bench and attempted to lunge at a gunman who had opened fire at Bray Boxing Club five years ago.
“I thought it was my responsibility to run at him,” Mr Taylor told the jury in the Central Criminal Court murder trial of Gerard Cervi this afternoon.
Mr Cervi, from the East Wall area in Dublin 3, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Robert ‘Bobby’ Messett at Bray Boxing Club, Bray Harbour, Co Wicklow on June 5, 2018.
He also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murders of Mr Taylor and Ian Britton on the same date and at the same location.
At the Central Criminal Court today, Mr Taylor told prosecuting barrister Paul Murray SC that he was at the gym on the morning of 5 June, 2018, to run an exercise class from 6.45am to 7.45am.
Mr Taylor said he drove his white Mustang to the class and arrived around 6.30am, when he opened the club and went upstairs to prepare the sessions on a white-board.
Mr Taylor said when people started arriving in the gym for the session he went to put some music on and was next to a pulling machine.
“As I plugged in the music, I heard loud bangs and thought an air compressor had blown up but I saw someone standing in the frame of the door. He was shooting around. As he started to shoot to one side I ran towards the gunman,” Mr Taylor told Mr Murray.
“He [the gunman] was inside the doorframe with his feet on either side of the door frame, splayed apart,” said the witness. Mr Taylor said the gunman held the gun in both hands but did not enter the room.
“Everything happened so quickly. I was looking around for something to throw at him but couldn’t find anything. I thought it was my responsibility to run at him,” he said.
Mr Taylor told Mr Murray that he did not see what happened to Mr Messet while the bullets were still “going around the room”.
“I had to run around the machines. When I was running towards the gunman, I didn’t see a bench and it caught my leg. When I was diving over it, the bench caught my leg and then I got shot and that spun me around,” said Mr Taylor.
Mr Taylor said he was in “mid-air” going over the bench in the process of lunging towards the gunman when he was shot.
“I wasn’t standing fully straight and it caught me near the shoulder,” he said. Mr Taylor confirmed to Mr Murray that the bullet went into his left bicep area and then into the left side of the chest and then out through the middle of his chest.
“I was concerned about looking after everybody in the gym. The first thing I asked was if everybody was OK,” he said.
Mr Taylor described the gunman as being “around 5′ 8″ and firing at chest-height.
“I remember a hi-vis vest and everything else was black,” said Mr Taylor when describing the shooter. Mr Taylor added that he thought he heard seven or eight shots over 30-40 seconds.
The witness said he did not see the gunman leave and did not hear any more shots after he was wounded.
Gym-goer Eddie McCann attended to Mr Taylor until gardaí and medics arrived and Mr Taylor was taken by ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital, where he underwent surgery. “I had a steel cage around my arm for about 18 months,” he said.
In cross-examination Mr Taylor told defence counsel, Hugh Hartnett SC, that he tried to assess the situation in order to “protect others” before he ran at the gunman.
Head down
Mr Hartnett asked if Mr Taylor was running with his head down and was told he was because bullets were being fired.
“I was looking towards where I was running with my head down but I could see where I was going,” said Mr Taylor.
Mr Hartnett asked Mr Taylor to stand and demonstrate the “straddling or splayed” stance of the gunman when he was in the doorway.
“Everyone knows what I mean, I’m not standing up,” said Mr Taylor.
Mr Hartnett asked if Mr Taylor’s clothes and personal items and a sum of money in his clothing were removed and was told by Mr Taylor that they were put in a bag by gardaí.
Mr Taylor told Mr Hartnett that he requested the return of the items removed by gardaí but that he had no issue with gardaí over the matter.
Mr Hartnett asked if Mr Taylor was “anxious” about the return of clothing, his runners and the sum of money.
“This is a murder trial and not about what was in my clothes. I did ask for them back but I got no answer at all,” said Mr Taylor.
Mr Hartnett asked Mr Taylor if he was concerned about the money in the clothing.
“There was no concern about money. This is not about money. Someone was after being killed,” said Mr Taylor, who confirmed to Mr Hartnett that he made a complaint about the non-return of the items.
Dumbbells
Witness Craig Britton told Antonia Boyle BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that he was getting dumbbells for the early morning session at around 6.50am when he heard a bang and turned around.
Mr Britton, whose brother Ian was wounded in the attack, said he was looking directly at Mr Messett and “saw him go down into a squat with his hands going up and then there was another bang and I made my way into an office,” he said.
There were at least five or six bangs, maybe more. I ran into the office after the first bang. There was a window bay and I was behind the curtain and heard more bangs.
Mr Britton said he felt “shock and terror” and that the “repetitive bangs” lasted around 30 seconds.
The witness said that after the bangs stopped, he knelt down beside Mr Messett and believed “on first contact that he had gone”.
James Hackett, who also participated in the exercise class, told the court that he arrived at the gym at around 6.40am.
Mr Hackett told Paul Murray SC, for the prosecution, that he first heard a “very loud” bang and believed a compressor or a speaker to have blown in the gym.
When Mr Hackett looked towards the door he saw Mr Messett “hit the ground”.
Mr Hackett said he crawled into the ladies’ toilets and another gym-goer, Stephen Kearns, followed him in, picked him up before both men went into a cubicle and locked it.
Mr Hackett said he had witnessed a person standing in the main doorway with his hands “stretched out in front of him”.
“I didn’t see what he was holding but he had gloves on,” he told Mr Murray.
“After the initial bang, I saw Bobby drop and then his head was moving around. Between the first and second [shots], there was about four seconds but the rest were very quick – “pop, pop, pop,” he said.
“I thought of my wife and two children straight away,” said Mr Hackett.
“Stephen Kearns said we could try to get out the window. As we looked out, Pete Taylor’s partner was walking towards the gym. We were trying to make her lip-read to call the guards but she didn’t grasp what we were saying. Then I saw two members walk out of the door and I presumed it was over. One of the members, Linda Gill, came into the ladies screaming that Bobby was dead,” said Mr Hackett.
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