Patrick Gillane has been jailed for eight years by Judge Joseph Mathews for soliciting two men to murder his late pregnant wife, Philomena. Judge Mathews at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said it was difficult to imagine "a more vile and vicious crime" than that of a husband soliciting someone to murder his wife. He said the maximum sentence for soliciting to murder was 10 years. It had remained at that in both Ireland and England under Section 4 of the Offences against the Person Act (1861) from the time it came into force until it was increased in England to life imprisonment in 1977.
Judge Mathews said the only mitigating factors in Gillane's favour were testimonials handed into court which described him as "honest and truthful", and the evidence from Supt John Burke that he had no previous criminal convictions.
The testimonials were submitted by his parish priest, Father Christy Walsh; his general practitioner, Dr Pat Joyce; and by two businessmen, Mr Sean Duffy and Mr Sean Kelly.
Judge Mathews said it was well established in Irish law that sentence must conform to the constitutional requirement of proportionality, in that it must strike a balance between the circumstances of the crime and the real personal circumstances of the convicted person. "Taking all the real circumstances of your life into account, as I must do, and having due regard to the weight of the testimonials and the fact you have no previous convictions, I impose a sentence of eight years for the crime for which you have been convicted by the jury", Judge Mathews told a crying Gillane.
Gillane was found guilty on December 8th by the jury of soliciting Mr Christopher Bolger and Mr Michael Doyle on a date unknown in January 1994 to murder his wife.
The jury of eight women and four men unanimously convicted him after a six-day trial.
Judge Mathews refused an application by defence counsel Mr Eamonn Leahy SC for leave to appeal both conviction and sentence.
Gillane (35), a part-time farmer and long-distance lorry driver, of Glenbrack, Gort, Co Galway, had pleaded not guilty to the charge and in evidence denied he ever met the men, although he conceded he had been in Dublin on the day in question. The late Mrs Philomena (nee Gordon) Gillane's ee Gordon) body was found in the boot of her own car at Athlone train station on May 18th, 1994, about a week after she was reported missing. She had been shot in the back and stabbed.
Forensic evidence revealed she was still alive when placed in the boot of her car within minutes of leaving her home at Beechlawn House, Glebe, Caltra, near Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
Gardai received reports of sightings of a car and two men near the entrance to the Gordon home on that morning. There were also reports of a shot or shots being fired in the vicinity around the same time.
The jury was told by prosecuting counsel Mr Edward Comyn SC (with Mr Shane Murphy), and by Judge Mathews, that for an accused person to be found guilty of soliciting someone to commit a murder, it was not necessary for the murder to have been carried out. It was sufficient for the jury to be satisfied the offence of soliciting someone to commit a murder had been carried out by the accused person.
The trial heard evidence from Gillane's sister-in-law, Ms Bridie Gordon, about the sexual relationship she had with him both before and after his marriage to her sister. Ms Gordon said her sister had confronted her around December 1993 about the affair. She claimed Gillane was always "pestering" her and that she ended the affair in October 1993 when she started a new relationship.
Gillane in evidence confirmed the affair and claimed Ms Gordon was always "shoving herself" at him. He said he ended it around December 1993 after he revealed it to his wife because his conscience was annoying him.
He also claimed his late motherin-law, Mrs Nonie Gordon, was aware of the affair between him and Bridie. Mrs Gordon collapsed and died of a heart attack just before she was due to be the first witness when Gillane's trial originally began at Galway Circuit Court. The trial was then transferred to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court at the request of his legal team.
Mrs Gillane was pregnant before her marriage to the defendant in Knock, Co Mayo, on April 30th, 1993. Their son, John Michael, was born on August 8th.
The jury heard evidence from Mr Bolger, Mr Doyle, Mrs Kathleen Bergin - a publican from Mountbellew, Co Galway - and from gardai who interviewed Gillane at various times, as well as from Gillane himself.
Mr Bolger said Gillane asked them to kill "a woman who worked in a hospital", while Mr Doyle said he asked them to murder "his wife" because she had threatened to take everything he owned. He thought at the time that Gillane's murder request was "a big joke".
Mrs Bergin told the jury she witnessed Mrs Gillane strike her husband in her lounge one night in December 1993 and heard her threaten she would take everything he owned. Det Garda Gerard Dillon said Gillane confirmed during an interview in July 1995 that this threat had been made by his wife. Gillane in his evidence agreed his wife made the threat but claimed she was always saying that type of thing and there was no real meaning to it. "She was an independent person and very discreet," he said.
Mr Leahy submitted that both Mr Bolger and Mr Doyle believed the solicitation to them had been a joke.
Neither man had been given a definite identity for the person they said they were asked to murder and they were not given the name either of a hospital in which the woman was working. In his closing address to the jury, Mr Leahy had argued that Gillane should be acquitted on the evidence of Mr Bolger alone, who had described the man who approached them as having a moustache and hazel eyes.
Gillane's evidence that he never had a moustache in his life and had blue eyes was unrebutted and unchallenged by the prosecution.