It is the prosecution’s case that Michael Scott deliberately ran over his aunt Christine ‘Chrissie’ Treacy (76) with an agricultural teleporter following a long-running dispute over land.

Mr Scott (58) of Gortanumera, Portumna, Co Galway, has pleaded not guilty to her murder on April 27, 2018, at her home in Derryhiney, Portumna. The defence says that Ms Treacy’s death was a tragic accident.

Mr McHugh had carried out work for Ms Treacy for 10 years and on the day before her death, sent a letter to Mr Scott on her instructions, instructing him not to include three parcels of land in his annual claim for the Single Farm Payment since she intended to claim that entitlement in her own right.

Mr McHugh explained this was an EU payment of usually between €5,000 to €160,000 but “Chrissie’s in fact were on the low side”, he said, and she was getting “not more than €5,000 per annum and maybe less than €3,000”.

She was also entitled to the Disadvantaged Area Scheme which was worth €40 per acre.

Asked to describe the number of occasions that he had contact with Michael Scott in relation to the land listed on Ms Treacy’s grant application, he outlined: “Heated in 2010, heated in 2011, heated in 2012. Quite heated in 2013 and explosive in 2014.”

Asked by Dean Kelly SC what he meant by the exchanges being “heated” prior to 2014, Mr McHugh said: “I found he was in no way negotiable. It was either his way or the high way.”

That spring, he received a call from Mr Scott, instructing him on the lands to put down on the application for Ms Treacy’s grant but Mr McHugh refused.

“He began to f*** and blind down the phone for a minute and a half. I gave him a dose of his own medicine back down the phone. We never spoke since,” he told the court.

From autumn 2016, he became involved in the leasing of a portion of Ms Treacy’s land at Kiltormer, putting it on the open market and in early 2017, wrote to tell Mr Scott that Ms Treacy intended taking this step, inviting him to bid for the lease.

On March 22, 2017, Tom Scott, who farmed the land with his brother, Michael - approached him, “shouting and roaring that this was his land and that he had no authority to let it, indicating that he would shoot him”.

Issues began to develop on the land with gates removed, water troughs taken, fences broken and electric fences broken up, with internal batteries left lying on the grass where they might prove harmful to animals.

Because of this, it became common for Ms Treacy to ring Mr McHugh quite late at night on a regular basis and she would often be “crying and upset” on the phone. Mr McHugh contacted the gardaí on a number of occasions to report his “very serious concerns”.

Five or six weeks prior to her death, she called and was “upset and emotional” because her dog, Bradley, had gone missing and never returned.

“It was clear that this was a devastating blow,” Dean Kelly SC for the prosecution said and Mr McHugh replied: “Yes in my opinion it was akin to her losing a child.”

Asked about the impact on Mr Scott’s business of partitioning the farm, he said it would have deprived Mr Scott of around 110 acres he had previously farmed. This would force him to reduce his herd by 110 cows because of “the fundamental principal” of one dairy cow per acre.

It would also reduce the area available to him to draw down the EU payments and in order to comply with the water directive on nitrates, there was a limit to how many livestock he could keep.

Brendan Hyland, Ms Treacy’s solicitor earlier told the court that two days after a letter he had sent to Michael Scott’s solicitor advising him that the lands were to be partitioned, he received a call from Regina Donoghue, Ms Treacy’s close friend telling him that the pensioner’s dog, Bradley, was missing.

Shortly after, Ms Treacy had decided to partition the farm and the legal process was put in train.

In April 2018, he received a letter from Mr Scott’s solicitor advising him that the matters had been agreed between the parties and requesting the lease for the lands.

Mr Hyland replied by fax on April 25, telling him that Ms Treacy had not entered into any lease but was prepared to settle the proceedings so that the land could be partitioned and “both parties can be independent and free of each other” and she could then consider the question of leasing the land.

He was unaware of the death of Ms Treacy two days later until he received a call from gardaí on April 29. He met them later that day and gave them a copy of Ms Treacy’s will, in which she had left her entire estate to Regina Donoghue and in their presence, phoned Ms Donoghue to tell her that she was the universal beneficiary.

“She was completely shocked,” said Mr Hyland.

The trial continues.