One man has been convicted and two others acquitted of the murder of Limerick man Brian Fitzgerald, who was shot dead after refusing to let the city's biggest drugs gang sell drugs in the nightclub where he worked as head of security.
The 34-year-old father of two was shot in the head outside his home at Brookhaven Walk, Mill Road, Corbally, in the early hours of November 29th, 2002, while returning home from work in Doc's nightclub.
Yesterday at the Central Criminal Court, Cloverhill, Dublin, Gary Campion (24), Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, was convicted of the killing.
He was at the scene when another man, James Martin Cahill (32), with addresses in Birmingham and Co Clare, shot Mr Fitzgerald. Cahill confessed he was paid €10,000 to carry out the shooting. He was convicted of the murder and jailed for life in November 2005. He is in a segregation unit for his own safety in the Midlands Prison, Portlaoise.
Garda sources said Cahill was offered no inducements for his testimony.
He voluntarily contacted gardaí in 2003 while serving an unrelated sentence for firearms offences and confessed.
"I shot him and no one else," Cahill told gardaí. "I want to get this out of my system, I want to get this out in the open."
Cahill implicated Campion and a number of others. Two men who went on trial with Campion were acquitted yesterday. They are: Desmond Dundon (23), Ballinacurra Weston, Co Limerick; and Clare businessman Anthony Kelly (50), with an address at Kilrush.
Desmond Dundon's brother John Dundon (27), Ballinacurra Weston, was acquitted of the murder last week on direction of Judge Peter Charleton, who said he had no case to answer.
Anthony Kelly, who has a conviction for living off the earnings of prostitution and who was targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau 10 years ago for drug dealing, was the only one of the acquitted men who walked free from court.
Desmond Dundon is already serving life for the 2003 murder of Limerick gang boss Kieran Keane. His brother John Dundon is serving four years for threatening to kill Keane's nephew, Owen Treacy.
Gary Campion is awaiting trial for the murder of a young Limerick criminal killed in the city's feud last year.
Senior Garda sources last night told The Irish Times that the investigation into Brian Fitzgerald's killing remains open and that they expect further charges. They believe two men serving prison terms abroad may have vital information about the murder.
At the Central Criminal Court Brian Fitzgerald's widow, Alice, was too upset to give a victim impact statement or to talk to the media.
She had told the four-week murder trial that she saw a man she believed was Gary Campion outside her house on the night her husband was shot. Her evidence corroborated that of James Martin Cahill, who was the State's key witness.
There was no other substantive evidence against Anthony Kelly or the Dundon brothers which corroborated Cahill's testimony about their alleged role in the planning of the murder.
Cahill claimed he had been given the weapon used to kill Mr Fitzgerald by Anthony Kelly, who also showed him how to use it. Cahill claimed Mr Kelly said to him when planning the murder, "Don't mess around".
Mr Kelly smiled and shook the hands of members of his legal team after his acquittal.
His solicitor, Eugene O'Kelly, said Anthony Kelly had been held in prison awaiting trial "on the word of a self-professed perjuring, perverted killer".
