43 year old charged with Det Gda Colm Horkan’s murder

ACCUSED Stephen Silver pictured at Castlerea District Court last Friday evening where he was charged with the murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan.  Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

Accused with Foxford address brought to court on Friday evening

Michael Commins
Castlerea

THERE was a large garda presence outside Castlerea courthouse for a special sitting of the local District Court on Friday evening when Stephen Silver (43) with an address at Aughavard, Foxford, but formerly from Granlahan, Castlerea, appeared charged with the murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan at Main Street in the town on Wednesday night.
After exiting the Garda van that brought him from the nearby station, Silver was escorted by detectives into the court via the front door, watched by some members of the public who had gathered outside the Courthouse and on the footpath across the road.
Judge Alan Mitchell presided over the short hearing. Garda Helen Gillen told the court that the accused made no reply when charged with the offence or when the charge of murder was read out to him.
The accused, sporting a ponytail, was dressed in a loose black t-shirt, black tracksuit bottoms blue flip-flops and a black glove on his right hand, gazed around the room, shaking his head, smiling on occasions, clasping his hands behind his head at other times and leaning forward placing his head down on the bench.
At one stage close to the end of the short hearing, he said: “Absolutely unreal. Unreal. I had no firearm on me.”
Judge Mitchell advised the defendant that his solicitor, Gearóid Geraghty, was there to speak on his behalf. “You do not have to say anything. What you have to say you can say it through him.”
Judge Alan Mitchell granted an application that Silver be medically assessed and remanded him in custody to appear by video-link in court on Friday, June 26.