A 25-year-old man has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a father-of-eight who was beaten and shot several times after drugs stashed on his laneway went missing.
Ross Allen, with an address at Ballyogan, Carrickmines, pleaded not guilty to the murder of 47-year-old Christy Daly on 29 December 2013 on Bog Lane, Kilbride, Clara, Co Offaly.
After almost nine hours of deliberations the jury reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Allen had hidden €30,000 worth of drugs on Bog Lane and when he returned to get them at 2.30am on 29 December they were gone.
The prosecution said the assumption was made that Daly had taken them.
Daly had recently been released from prison and was living alone in a caravan on the remote lane.
Allen reported the missing stash to the owner of the drugs and set in motion the events leading to Daly's death.
He returned to Bog Lane with two Dublin gang members armed with a semi-automatic machine gun and a hammer.
Allen was told to keep a look out while the two other men went to Daly's caravan.
The trial heard from State Pathologist Marie Cassidy that Daly's front teeth were knocked out and his nose was broken before his killers shot him several times in the legs.
During Garda interviews Allen said he did not think Daly would be killed, saying he thought they would frighten him into telling them what he had done with the drugs.
However Patrick Marrinan for the prosecution said: "He knew they had deadly weapons and that they would be used if needs be".
He said that Allen was part of the joint enterprise to murder Daly.
Defence counsel Blaise O'Carroll SC said the only evidence the gardaí had against his client were the statements he made to gardaí while in custody.
He said those statements showed that he was an "idiot" who found himself in a world of hardened criminals who took advantage of him.
Mr O'Carroll referred to a garda interview in which Allen was asked if he thought the plan was to kill Daly and he replied: "Christ no!"
He pointed out that Allen had wanted to be a tree surgeon until he lost his job with a local logging company and developed an addiction to cannabis.
It was his addiction to cannabis that put him in debt to the local drug dealer who got him to do odd jobs for him to repay the money he owed.
He said Allen is not a hard-nosed criminal but falls into a different category.
Allen will be sentenced on 18 July.
Charges against a second man, 22-year-old Mathew Gralton from Mount Prospect, Co Roscommon, were withdrawn during the trial.
