Andrew Carey | [email protected]
EVIL entered the lives of the Collins family on April 9, 2009 when 34 year-old Roy Collins was murdered in broad daylight outside his Limerick amusement arcade at the Roxboro shopping centre.
On May 5, 2010, James Dillon, a 24-year-old man of no fixed abode, admitted firing the shot that killed Roy Collins a year earlier. Gardaí found him hiding under a bed in Ballinacurra and, after 26 interviews and a visit from his grandfather, Dillion pleaded guilty on the day his trial was due to begin at the Central Criminal Court.
He was jailed for life.
This Tuesday, Roy Collins’ father Steve will have to steer his family through another court ordeal when two men go on trial for his son’s murder.
Wayne Dundon (35) of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect and Nathan Killeen (24) of Hyde Road, Prospect – whose sister is married to Wayne Dundon’s brother John – are both charged with murdering Roy Collins.
Gardai have linked the murder to an incident in 2004 when Annabel Dundon, then 14 and a member of the McCarthy Dundon family, was refused entry to Brannigans pub, which was owned by Steve Collins.
Prosecutors had previously told the Central Criminal Court that Ryan Lee, a first cousin of Roy Collins, refused the girl entry. Wayne Dundon called to the pub and threatened to kill Lee by cocking his finger and saying “F*** you, you’re dead”.
He was later convicted of threatening to kill Ryan Lee and served five years of a seven year sentence and Gardaí claim that Roy Collins’ murder is linked to members of his family giving evidence against Dundon.
After the murder Steve Collins was placed under Garda protection but he’s also had to live with the belief that Dillion was just the hired gun that carried out a “cowardly and unforgiveable act”.
In March 2012, the burden finally became too much for the Collins family and, on what was described as a “sad day for Limerick, they left the city to set up a new life under the witness protection scheme.
“It is too much. Everywhere we go, the guards have to go with us. It is not a normal life,” Mr Collins said before he boarded an Aer Lingus flight with his wife Carmel, their adult son Steve Jnr and daughter Leeann.
The State bought the family pub in Roxboro with the proceeds helping the family set up abroad. The Limerick Local Authorities made plans to put the property to good use in Roy’s memory and set up a Regeneration Office there.
Steve and Carmel Collins return regularly to visit their son’s grave.
It’s as far as their links to Limerick go and many locals feel that the city still owes them a debt for “speaking out”, as Independent city councillor John Gilligan puts it.
Last month Carmel Collins organised anniversary Masses, remembrance notices and visited the cemetery with extended family.
Since their arrest and remand in custody, lawyers for Dundon and Killeen have sought to delay their trial coming before the three judge non-jury court. Even the recent Garda phone recording revelations played a role in the process.
But the trial remains listed for this Tuesday as Limerick awaits the verdict of The People of Ireland versus Wayne Dundon and Nathan Killeen.
Nathan Killeen
When the trial date was set for the Dundon and Killeen Murder trial at the Special Criminal Court, the two accused men were returned to custody.
However Nathan Killeen was brought back to the courtroom for Detective Christine Bergin to charge him with the murder of James Cronin on a date unknown between April 5 and 7, 2008 at an unknown place within the state.
20 year-old Cronin was found in a shallow grave in Caledonian Park with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Killeen said “its a stitch up.”
