The shootings happened at Bog Meadows in west Belfast
The trial of a Belfast man accused of murdering a taxi driver in the city almost four years ago has collapsed at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
Prosecuting counsel Michael Bowman told the court the state was not proceeding with the trial of Gerard Mackin after only three days of evidence.
Mr Mackin, 28, denied the murder of 36-year-old Edward Burns, who was shot dead in west Belfast in March 2007.
On Tuesday, the key prosecution witness said he was too scared to testify.
Damien O'Neill told judges: "I have been threatened that if I give evidence I will be shot dead."
He said he had been visited and threatened twice in recent weeks by "men from the republican movement".
Mr Mackin, 28, a native of the Whiterock area of west Belfast, but with an address in Tallaght, Dublin, was also accused of the attempted murder of Mr O'Neill, the possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and causing serious harm to Mr O'Neill.
The trial had resumed in Dublin after the three judges of the court had heard evidence at Laganside Courts in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday.
Mr Mackin was originally convicted of the murder in 2008. He was the first person found guilty in a Dublin court for a murder in Belfast under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976.
However, in 2010 the conviction was quashed by Dublin's Court of Criminal Appeal and a retrial ordered.
When Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, presiding, discharged Mr Mackin on Thursday, several of the accused's supporters applauded and cheered while members of the victim's family wept.
- Published25 January 2011
- Published19 October 2010
