A DUBLIN man has been given two life sentences after he was found guilty of murdering two men who were shot dead in the city two years ago.
Gary Howard (24) of Emerald Street in the inner city had pleaded not guilty to murdering Patrick Mooney (58) and Brendan Molyneaux (46) on January 10th, 2010.
But the jury of six women and five men returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on both counts after almost eight hours of deliberation following the six-week trial.
Mr Justice Paul Carney thanked the Central Criminal Court jury for their service, telling them: “These cases are very upsetting for everybody.”
The judge handed down two life sentences to run concurrently and backdated them to January 10th, 2010, from when Howard went into custody.
Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, told the court the families did not want to exercise their right to give a victim impact statement.
Mr Grehan said the families “were and remain devastated”. However, he said, they did not want to address the court, as they believed the facts of the case “speak for themselves”.
The court heard Howard has 40 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic offences but also for arson and threatening and abusive behaviour.
Det Insp Michael Cryan told the court Howard is a father of two and to his knowledge has never worked.
As Howard was led away by prison officers he shouted over to the victims’ families: “Could have been worse, could have been in the ground being ate by maggots.”
The victims, who were family friends, were found shot dead in Mr Mooney’s flat at Pearse House, Hanover Street, Dublin.
Howard was arrested that night and detained at Kevin Street Garda station for five days.
The trial heard Howard initially denied having carried out the killings but then admitted to them before denying it again.
In a Garda interview Howard said he was with his one-year-old child at the time he was threatened to carry out the killings.
“They stuck a gun in me mouth and pointed it at me child,” he told gardaí.
“They knew how close I was to them . . . my life ended along with Brendan and Paddy’s.
“I was told to murder them . . . I didn’t want to do this, I couldn’t tell anyone why I had to do it,” he told gardaí in a later interview.
“They didn’t care when I did it; they didn’t care if it was Christmas Day,” he said.
“Just to say sorry to the families. I didn’t want to do it, I hope they forgive me someday,” he said.
“I want to add that I want to say sorry to the families and I’m not just saying that because I got caught – I really liked those two men,” he said.
The trial also heard Howard told gardaí Brendan Molyneaux was “an IRA head” and “he knew the Provos were after him”.
In an interview on January 15th, 2010, he denied carrying out the killings and he had said earlier that he had committed them because was under duress.
“Any admissions I’ve made I strongly retract them. I never killed anyone in my life. . . Any admissions I made were under duress,” he said.
State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy said Brendan Molyneaux’s death was “swift with no hope of recovery” after a single gunshot to the back of his head injured his brain stem and caused his immediate collapse.
Prof Cassidy told the court Patrick Mooney died from a combination of brain injury and the laceration of his jugular after he suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.
In his direction to the jury Mr Justice Carney told them duress is not capable of amounting to a defence under our law in relation to murder.