A former INLA man who spent 17 years on the run was jailed for six years by the Special Criminal Court yesterday for the manslaughter of a Bray landscape gardener after a fight outside a pub in the Co Wicklow town.
John Patrick Moloney (52), a father of six formerly of Corbawn Wood, Shankill, Co Dublin, was extradited from Spain last year. .
He had gone on the run after failing to turn up for his trial for the murder of Mr James O'Connor in 1983. Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr O'Connor at his home at Beech Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, on February 19th, 1983. The State accepted the plea. Another man, John Joseph Dunne, from Fassaroe Park, Bray was jailed for life in May, 1983 for Mr O'Connor's murder.
Yesterday Det Insp Gerry O'Carroll told the court Moloney had gone home after drinking with Dunne and another man in a pub on Dargle Road, Bray. He received a telephone call from Dunne who told him he had been beaten up by Mr O'Connor and his brother, Stephen. Moloney then loaded a .22 semiautomatic pistol with seven rounds of ammunition and met Dunne and the other man.
The three men went in search of the two O'Connor brothers. When they arrived at Mr James O'Connor's house they were told by his wife that he was sleeping.
Moloney broke windows in the house and Mr O'Connor appeared at the bedroom window in response. Dunne fired six shots from the gun provided by Moloney. Three of the shots hit Mr O'Connor, who died from internal bleeding. Det Insp O' Carroll said that Moloney had failed to turn up for his trial, and had been arrested by Spanish police in Malaga in 1997 and extradited last March.
Moloney told the court that in 1983 he was the finance officer of the Wicklow brigade of the INLA and Dunne was the quartermaster. The pistol he had hidden at his home belonged to the INLA. He said when Dunne told him to bring a gun he had to obey the orders of "a senior officer" and they both felt they had to "defend the honour of the organisation".
Moloney said he had had no contact with the INLA since 1984 and now totally renounced all violence. He expressed his deepest sympathy to the O'Connor family for what he had done. Mr Justice Frederick Morris sentenced Moloney to six years imprisonment to date from April 6th, 1997.