A four and a half year prison sentence has been imposed on a County Limerick man for impeding the apprehension or prosecution of his stepfather by hiding the sawn-off shotgun he used to kill a rival motorbike gang member.
28-year-old Robert Cusack from Abbington, Murroe, who admitted assisting Alan (Cookie) McNamara by hiding the murder weapon, has been sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
Earlier today 50 year-old McNamara from Mountfune, Murroe received a mandatory life sentence for the murder of Andrew O’Donoghue (51) on June 20, 2015 at the Road Tramps motorcycle clubhouse in Mountfune.
Imposing sentence on Robert Cusack in the Central Criminal Court this afternoon Mr Justice Paul McDermot said it was a serious offence in which a dangerous weapon had been taken from the scene in the knowledge that it had been used.
He said it was taken away with the intention of hiding it from Gardaí.
In a victim impact statement, Mr O’Donoghue’s family said they struggled every day to understand why he was taken away from them.
They said his partner and daughter, who was 12 at the time, continue to suffer emotional trauma.
Mr McNamara, a member of the Caballeros motorcycle club, shot Mr O’Donoghue at the gates to the Road Tramps clubhouse in Murroe following a row the previous day when members of the Road Tramps punched him in the face and took his Caballerops club waistcoat from him.
The following day, armed with a sawn-off shotgun, he went to the Road Tramps’ headquarters in Murroe where he shot Mr O’Donoghue who was guarding the gate leading to the clubhouse. He sustained severe facial and head injuries and was pronounced dead in hospital a few hours later.
The gun was removed from the scene by Mr Cusack and was later found hidden at the back of McNamara’s house.
