A 42-year-old man who admitted helping a criminal gang murder a rival gang member in Limerick 19 years ago has been jailed for 15 years.
Darragh Quinlivan, originally from Limerick but with an address in Ranswell Close, Bolton, in the UK, was initially charged with murder but pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and shooting Noel Campion to enhance an organised crime group.
Quinlivan, who had been affiliated to the McCarthy-Dundon criminal gang, left Ireland after the killing but told several people, including a police officer in the US, that he had killed a man.
The murder was directed from "the very top" of the organised crime group.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the case falls into the most serious category because it was part of a plan to kill someone in cold blood and Quinlivan was the gunman.
The McCarthy-Dundon criminal gang was involved in a murderous feud with the Keane-Collopy drugs gang in Limerick which resulted in 14 people being shot dead between 2000 and 2010, including innocent people like rugby player Shane Geoghegan and Roy Collins, a hardworking father of two.
Mr Campion was also a victim of the feud.
He had been due to appear in court in Limerick on road traffic offences on 26 April 2007 and was a pillion passenger on a motorbike heading towards the city being driven by Brian 'Spider' Scanlan, who was in a relationship with his sister.
When they stopped in traffic behind a truck that morning, Quinlivan walked out from a nearby phone booth and shot Campion four times. He was pronounced dead around 40 minutes after the shooting.
Quinlivan also fired several shots at Mr Scanlon as he ran away.
That night, gardaí saw Quinlivan drinking and celebrating with seven other members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang. He was very close to the Dundons.
Five days later, on 1 May 2007, he went to the garda station to get a passport signed, and the next day, gave evidence in court in Nenagh that he wanted to leave the country as soon as possible because of his involvement in the feud and that there was work waiting for him in the US.
Quinlivan told gardaí that he was at his parents house the night before the shooting and was woken by a phone call the next morning telling him about it.
He also said he visited the grave of his friend Frankie Ryan who had been shot dead in 2006. Mr Campion's brother Gary is serving a life sentence for his murder.
Quinlivan moved to Tacoma in Washington state, where he lived and worked in his uncle’s business for the next six months.
A police officer who subsequently arrested him there when he was drunk one night said Quinlivan Told him that he "shot him in the back of the head execution style" because he had killed a friend of his.
"You know why I'm here, I killed a man in Ireland", the police officer said Quinlivan told him and that he then named the man as being 'Noel'.
Three women also said he told them on different occasions that he had killed someone, but Quinlivan denied to police in the US that he had murdered Noel Campion, adding that he had not fled there and that it was a planned trip.
Quinlivan was subsequently deported back to Ireland from the US in 2008 and said what he said to the officer in the US was rubbish.
He has 24 previous convictions, including for robbery with a firearm and stealing a car. He was 24 years old at the time of the shooting.
Garda Inspector Fergal Hanrahan agreed with defence counsel that Quinlivan had "taken a turn in the road for the good" and had left Limerick, got a job and settled in the UK.
He was now, the court heard, the epitome of a family man and had worked hard for his three children for the last 13 years. He has lived and worked in Manchester for years.
Father of two was 'brutally shot'
Mr Campion's daughter Lynsey was 11 when her father was shot dead. In a victim impact statement she told Quinlivan "you murdered my father and carried on with your life as if nothing happened, you continued as if taking a life meant nothing."
Mr Campion's wife Maureen said her life changed forever when the father of two was "brutally shot."
"Noel did not deserve this brutal and premeditated murder inflicted on him," she said.
Mr Justice McDermott described the murder as "a directed killing" and that Quinlivan was the gunman who "shot" Campion "at point blank range "and tried to kill Mr Scanlon.
Quinlivan, the judge said, knew the purpose of the shooting was to advance the interests of the gang of which he was member.
He described the murder as "callous" and said that Quinlivan had opened fire on the street with no regard for the safety, terror or shock of public.
The McCarthy-Dundon gang, he said, were clearly determined to carry out their criminal business and believed they could do what they want with impunity
He sentenced Quinlivan to 16 years in prison with the final year suspended
