A Galway man, Patrick Gillane, faces up to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of soliciting two men to murder his wife. A jury of eight women and four men took two hours and 10 minutes yesterday evening to come to a unanimous verdict of guilty.
Gillane (35) said nothing and showed no emotion when the verdict was read shortly after 6 p.m. His sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Bridie and Paddy Gordon, applauded when it was announced.
During the six-day trial the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Gillane had been having an affair with Bridie and had told his wife, Philomena, about the affair at Christmas 1993.
He approached two men in Dublin on an unknown date in January 1994 and asked them to murder his wife. One of the witnesses, Mr Christopher Bolger, gave evidence that Gillane asked them to murder a "woman who worked in a hospital".
The other man, Mr Michael Doyle, said Gillane asked them to murder his wife because she was going to leave him and he would "lose everything". The men refused Gillane's request and when asked by gardai whether they had killed Mrs Gillane they both said they had not.
In May 1994 the body of Mrs Gillane, who was seven months pregnant, was found in the boot of her car at Athlone railway station. She had been shot and stabbed to death. The Garda file on her murder is still open.
Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, said the "essence of this crime" was not the murder of Philomena Gillane. "The death of the defendant's wife has nothing to do with this case," he said. The crime was asking a person to murder another.
The charge under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act carries a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 10 years. It is seldom used in Irish courts, as it is very rare to get the evidence needed for a conviction.
In his closing submission Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, defending, said the case rested exclusively on the visual identification of Gillane by two men. He said there were differences between each man's account of the meeting. He said the jury should be aware that criminal law was "peppered with instances of incorrect identification".
Mr Leahy said Ms Gordon's evidence of the affair she had with Gillane did not differ from his. "You're not here to pass judgment on his morals," Mr Leahy said. And it would be "wrong to decide the case on a matter of prejudice or dislike for the defendant's activities".
Mr Leahy said one of the witnesses, Mr Bolger, "is a man who says he has a microchip in his head and that people can read his mind".
Judge Joseph Mathews warned the jury it was dangerous to convict on the basis of visual identification. "This is a case that wholly depends on identification," he said. Gillane's defence "is that this is a case of mistaken identity".
Gillane will be sentenced on Monday.
