A man has been given a life sentence for the murder of a Limerick bouncer by a jury at the Central Criminal Court.
Gary Campion (24), Pineview gardens, Moyross, Limerick, was found guilty of murdering Brian Fitzgerald on November 29th 2002, at Brookhaven Walk, Mill Road, Corbally, Limerick. The verdict was returned after just over five hours of deliberations by the 12-man jury.
His three co-accused were all acquitted.
Earlier in the trial John Dundon (27), Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, was acquitted when Mr Justice Peter Charleton ruled there was no case against him. His brother, Desmond Dundon (23), also from Ballinacurra Weston, and Anthony Kelly (50), Kilrush, Co Clare, were both found not guilty yesterday.
In a statement through his solicitor, Eugene O'Kelly, Mr Kelly said he was grateful to the jury for upholding his innocence but expressed his resentment for the past year's incarceration "on the word of a self-professed perjuring, perverted killer".
Mr O'Kelly said: "It is quite extraordinary that this man's freedom has been denied to him for the past year on the rantings and the ravings of a demented psychopath."
Mr Fitzgerald was shot dead outside his house as he returned home from work. He was head of security at Doc's Nightclub in Limerick city. He was shot in the head and chest by chief prosecution witness James Martin Cahill, who is serving a life sentence for the murder.
Cahill said during his evidence that he had been hired by a man, referred to as Mr A for legal reasons, to shoot someone who had "made a statement against him". Campion was to drive the getaway bike.
Cahill had claimed that Mr Kelly had provided the gun and Desmond and John Dundon had identified the victim.
When the original driver of the motorbike to be used to make a getaway from the shooting pulled out, Campion stepped in and agreed to do the driving.
The first driver, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, had arrived in Limerick just after 6.30pm on the day of the murder. He was caught on CCTV making several phone calls from Burger King at the Parkway Shopping Centre.
Cahill told the court that the Ducatti motorcycle a Mr D, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had brought was "f***ed". It had a problem with the clutch and Mr D told him it wouldn't support Cahill's weight.
Gary Campion was called and attempted unsuccessfully to fix the Ducatti which was subsequently abandoned.
He left and returned with another bike which was later used to escape the murder scene and found on fire in a lane behind a garage outside Limerick.
Cahill described trips to Doc's Nightclub to identify the victim and Brookhaven Walk to identify his house. Cahill and Campion drove out to the Brookhaven Walk, where they hid in bushes to wait.
Mr Fitzgerald's widow Alice said during the trial that her husband had left for work, as usual, at about 8.10pm. It was his first day back in work since the weekend. Before he left, he bathed the couple's two young children and stayed with them until they fell asleep.
She was expecting her husband home at about 3.10am. At about 2am, she got up to give one of the children a bottle and stayed awake to wait for her husband.
Mr Fitzgerald was late home. He had been dropping colleagues home after work so it was 3.50am before she heard his vehicle arrive and the door open.
She started coming downstairs but then she heard four shots and the sound of glass breaking. She said she heard her husband shout out, "come on ye c***s."
As she ran down the stairs she could see her husband fighting with a man in a motorcycle helmet through the glass panel in the front door.
As she watched, her husband looked at her through the glass.
She ran back upstairs to phone the Garda but couldn't get her phone to work so she came back downstairs. She used the house phone to call the Garda and was looking out of the window as she talked.
"As I was looking out there was a guy standing directly outside the window.
"He was a thin-built man wearing a motorcycle helmet. She could only see the second man's legs as he was blocked by the vehicle but could see he was a "big, fat, stocky guy".
She got a better look at the second man. "He had very shiny eyes and his eyebrows, they met," she said, "They were jet, jet black." She said the man muttered something and "took off".
As they left she saw that one of the men was limping. She went outside the house and looked in the car. "I don't know what I thought. I just looked in the jeep to see if he was there." Ms Fitzgerald said that she initially thought the two men had abducted her husband.
Cahill told the court that when Mr Fitzgerald arrived, he ran out of his hiding place towards him holding the gun. There was a struggle by the car and Cahill fired four shots.
Mr Fitzgerald was hit but struggled to his feet and ran up the streets shouting for help. He was banging on a neighbour's door when Cahill caught up with him and shot him again across the bonnet of a car. He fell down and Cahill walked around and shot him in the head.
Cahill and Campion fled the scene. Cahill was seen limping by witnesses. He had twisted his ankle as he pursued Mr Fitzgerald.
They drove to the place they had decided to abandon the bike, where a can of petrol had earlier been left. Cahill said he gave his helmet to Campion then collected his car and left.
Campion set fire to the bike and got a taxi home. During the trial the jury heard from a taxi driver, Christopher Kelly, who received a call to pick someone up not far from where the bike was burning. He told the court he saw "a flame" as he turned to pick up his fare. He described his passenger as a young man with dark hair who wanted to be taken to Pineview Gardens in Moyross.
As they drove, Mr Kelly talked to his passenger who was considering going to visit a sick relative in St James's Hospital in Limerick.
Campion's grandfather was extremely ill in that hospital at the time and later died. Campion was identified on closed-circuit television footage from the hospital on the afternoon before the murder.
Mr Justice Charleton refused Campion leave to appeal. He also set a date for Mr Kelly to apply for his legal costs.
Mr Justice Charleton thanked the jurors for their attentiveness during the trial and excused them from further jury duty for the rest of their lives.