A 46-year-old man who was "haunted" by the death of his innocent friend after he was shot dead in his car, conspired to shoot another man seven-and-a-half years ago, the Special Criminal Court has been told.
Jason 'Jay' O’Connor of Whitestown Grove in Blanchardstown, admitted conspiring to murder Charlie Cooper who was shot several times in his home in Parslickstown Green, Mulhuddart, on 5 December, 2016.
Mr Cooper managed to run to a neighbour's house and survived the attack.
O'Connor also admitted to helping the Kinahan Organised Crime Group commit murder.
O'Connor was the target when his friend Keith Walker, an innocent man he knew from the local pigeon club, was shot dead the year before in a case of mistaken identity.
Mr Walker had been driving O'Connor's car when he was murdered in the car park of the Pigeon Racing Club on Shelerin Road, Clonsilla in Dublin on 12 June 2015.
Gardaí investigating the attempted murder of Charlie Cooper seized an encrypted blackberry phone from O'Connor's home which, when accessed, showed that O'Connor was planning a revenge attack.
O'Connor said in a message on the phone two months before the gun attack, that Mr Walker's death "broke me", that "it's eating me", that "16 months" was "too long" and that "anyone involved has to go".
'Eye for an eye'
There were messages about the car to be used, that they were "buzzing for Walker, take them all down", a reference to "an eye for an eye" and that it was to be "done right", "get rid of clothes" and "scrub hands".
Gardaí from Blanchardstown also recovered other messages from the encrypted device including references to five "operations" in total with discussions about a gun silencer, trackers to be put on cars, named people who were targets and their movements "duckin and divin" and the fact that they were prepared to wait to shoot someone for "as long as it takes".
Detective Inspector Liam O'Donoghue told the court that the gang O'Connor was facilitating to commit murder was the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
In one message, O'Connor and 'Associate A' talked about the difficulties in shooting a person at a particular location where there was "nowhere to park and watch" describing it as "a suicide mission".
In another, a message stated, the "lads put a tracker on …the wrong motor" while O'Connor had sent a message saying, "I won’t get it wrong, clean head shot, no mistakes, he’s going down".
O'Connor's defence counsel said his client was very distressed after his pigeon racing friend was shot dead, was "mentally very unwell" and seeing a psychiatrist.
He had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication but was mixing it with street tablets and cocaine. He has 70 previous convictions, including for gun crime, assault, burglary and possession of a mobile phone in prison.
The case took eight years to come before the Special Criminal Court because it has only recently been possible to access the messages on the encrypted device.
The court was told that O'Connor has for the first time proactively engaged with his long-standing drugs problem and graduated from an inpatient treatment facility.
'Turning of the page'
Defence Counsel Michael Bowman said it was "a very significant turning of the page" and represented the "green shoots of recovery".
O'Connor has written letter in custody saying he fully appreciates the harm he has done.
He said he grew up in a violent environment and sought retribution after he was involved in disputes with friends and associates.
These have cost him and his community a lot, but the court was told he seeks a different role, he wants to disassociate from criminality and can make a contribution to his immediate family and wider society.
Prosecuting Counsel Sean Gillane told the court the maximum penalties are ten and 15 years for the two offences O'Connor has pleaded guilty to.
He will be sentenced in October.
