GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting of a father of two that left him in a permanent vegetative state have arrested three suspects in the case.
The three men were being held in Dublin Garda stations in connection with the shooting of Robert Delany (29) at his home in Tallaght in the west of the city almost two years ago.
The three suspects were arrested in separate operations at two addresses in Tallaght and one in Co Kildare before dawn yesterday.
One of the men arrested in Tallaght is a 57-year-old convicted criminal and former Provisional IRA member. He is now an established businessman who works with high-profile organisations and well-known people in the Republic.
The man arrested in Kildare is aged 31. The third arrested man is aged 32 and was detained in Tallaght.
The three men are being questioned under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be held for up to 72 hours without charge. They are being detained at Tallaght and Rathfarnham Garda stations.
Gardaí believe all three were involved in planning Mr Delany’s shooting and paid two criminals from Finglas, north Dublin, to carry out the attack.
Mr Delany was at home with his girlfriend and two children at an apartment on Russell Rise, off Fortunestown Way, Tallaght, when he was shot on the morning of October 22nd, 2008.
A caller rang the bell of his apartment at 6.30am. When the 29- year-old postman looked over his balcony to see who was outside he was shot at by a man who was standing on the pavement.
Mr Delany was sprayed in the face with shotgun pellets and fell back into his apartment. The gunman and an accomplice escaped and a car used by them was later found by gardaí.
Mr Delany never recovered from the shooting and has been in a permanent vegetative state in hospital for the past two years. His family has been told by doctors that he has no chance of recovery but could survive for decades.
He is not on a life-support machine but has no brain function. Bones have been removed from his skull to enable his brain to bleed and swell without the pressure killing him. He has also contracted MRSA and developed epilepsy.
Mr Delany had never been involved in any form of criminality. However, after he was shot it emerged he had broken up a row outside a Dublin pub. During the course of trying to rescue a man who was being attacked, he punched one of the attackers.
Mr Delany was subsequently threatened during numerous phone calls before money was demanded from him. However, he was unable to pay the money and was instead shot.
Gardaí believe money was provided to gunmen to shoot Mr Delany. The man who accepted the money to carry out the shooting was 25-year-old Finglas criminal Daniel Gaynor, who was shot dead last month in Finglas.
The arrests of the three people yesterday morning bring to nine the number detained in connection with Mr Delany’s shooting. Nobody has been charged to date.