THE THREE judges of the non-jury special criminal court will deliver their verdict tomorrow in the trial of two men charged with the murder of Limerick businessman, Roy Collins. Andrew Carey reviews the case to be considered.
The Trial
Presiding judge Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley, along with Judge Margaret Heneghan and Judge Anne Ryan, will deliberate over allegations that 36-year-old Wayne Dundon, Lenihan Avenue ordered a man to go to the Coincastle Amusements Arcade at the Roxboro Shopping Centre on April 9, 2009 to shoot and kill Steve Collins.
Steve Collins’ son Roy, a 35-year-old father of two, was shot dead by James Dillon who, it is alleged, carried out the killing in retribution for the Collins family giving evidence in previous trials against the Dundon gang.
The judges must also consider evidence alleging that 24-year-old Nathan Killeen from Hyde Avenue, Prospect, drove the getaway car for Dillon.
The Evidence
During the trial, which is the first in the history of the State to be presided over by three female judges, evidence was heard from dozens of gardai, gang members serving lengthy prison sentences, their girlfriends, extended family members and a convicted murderer.
Gareth Collins – a former member to the McCarthy Dundon gang – said he was offered €20,000 and drugs by Wayne Dundon to drive the getaway car. He said that Dundon made the offer on a mobile phone from his prison cell.
Collins said he refused as he knew the job was “not just to drive a fella around the corner” and figured it was something much more serious. He told Dundon that he “didn’t want to have anything to with that”.
Collins was well known to gardai but he told nobody of Dundon’s offer and moved to Portlaoise after his release from prison before the murder in 2009.
He said he saw Nathan Killeen and another man leave Crecora Avenue on the morning of April 9 and, a short time later, saw them being pursued by Gardaí in the Roxboro area.
In 2011, Gareth Collins, along with other members of the Dundon gang, was jailed for violent disorder and demanding money with menaces.
Remy Farrell SC, defence counsel for Wayne Dundon, put it to Collins that the only reason he came forward to give evidence against Dundon was that he was aggrieved he got one of the longest sentences for the crime.
Collins denied this and also that he was trying to see what protection he could get for his girlfriend and himself once released from prison.
His girlfriend, Elaine Walsh, said that she still lived in fear of the Dundons and that she made a false statement to Gardaí three years ago to provide an alibi for Gareth Collins.
“We were in fear of our lives and still are to this day. I had to do what I did at that time to protect Gareth, and the pressure he was under from certain people. At the time I had to do the right thing to protect him,” she said.
Ger Dundon’s former partner and mother of three children, April Collins, told the trial that she received a call from Wayne Dundon from his prison cell. She told the three judges that she brought her young son to the hospital on the morning of the shooting and that while she was there, Dundon allegedly phoned her from a mobile phone he had access to while in prison and asked if members of Roy Collins’ family were there too. She said that she told Wayne Dundon that Roy’s partner was there and visibly very upset. This evidence was challenged through legal argument by the defence.
Garda James Hourihan told the trial that some of the main witnesses had testified out of ‘a necessity to stay alive’. He said he took a statement from Gareth Collins in prison after his sister April testified against the Dundons in two earlier trials.
Under cross examination by Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha, defending Killeen, Gda Hourihan said that Dundon had threatened to kill members of the Collins family in March 2011
“It forced the hand of the Collins family to come forward and make statements. It was a necessity to stay alive in my opinion.”
The trial also heard from convicted killer Anthony Noddy McCarthy who is a cousin of the Dundon family and one of five men jailed for the killing of rival gang boss Kieran Keane.
McCarthy said that he heard Dundon on a mobile phone in Wheatfield prison on the morning of the murder telling the person on the phone to “go up and do Collins”.
When he asked Dundon what it was all about, he said he had told James Dillon to kill Steve Collins or he and his mother would be hurt.
He found out about Roy Collins being shot on the RTÉ teletext service which reported that he was wounded in the leg. When he met him shortly afterwards on the prison landing, Dundon boasted that Steve Collins thought I was joking” adding that the victim was not wounded but dead,
In his evidence, Steve Collins said that on the morning of the shooting, he was called into his son’s business by a work colleague to find Roy on his knees with a bloody shirt and finding it extremely difficult to breath.
He held his son in his arms until paramedics came and tried to save his life. He died in hospital a short time later from the single gunshot wound. A burnt out Mercedes car was found three miles away and two men were seen fleeing from the scene.
Closing speeches have been heard and the court has reserved its judgement.
The Judges
Presiding judge Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley
Born in 1964 and called to the bar in 1987, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley was called to the inner bar in 2007 and is a director and former chairperson of FLAC (Free Legal Aid Centres) for which she was awarded the ESB Rehab person of the year in 2004. She has sat on a number of tribunals including the four year Hepatitis C tribunal in 1995.
Judge Margaret Heneghan is a circuit court judge from the Dublin and has presided over many high profile cases. Born in 1959, she was called to the bar in 1993 and appointed to the Circuit in 2012. Judge Heneghan was also a member of the legal aid board during her time as a senior counsel.
Judge Ann Ryan was appointed to the judiciary in 2004 and assigned Dublin District Court where she regularly presides at the children’s court. She is known as a longtime advocate for children’s rights.
The Court
SET up in the early 1970s, the Special Criminal court is presided over by three judges, one from the district, circuit and high courts. It was established to hear cases of organised crime, terrorism and serious offences deemed unsuitable to be heard before a judge and jury.
The court sits in the €200 million Criminal Courts of Justice building at the Phoenix Park. The high security building holds 19 courts, judicial suites and extensive law library facilities.
