The getaway driver in the "cold-blooded assassination" of convicted criminal Wayne Whelan, who was shot dead before his body was found in a burning car, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Christopher Moran, of Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin, Dublin was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Justice David Keane said the defendant had successfully impeded the prosecution of the person who murdered Whelan, as no one has yet been convicted of the offence, which was "as serious as could be".
Whelan, 42, was shot dead at Mount Andrew Rise in Lucan, Co Dublin on the evening of 18 November 2019.
He received at least three gunshot wounds to the back of the head in a position where the killer had been sitting in the back of the car and to his right.
The car in which he was sitting was then set on fire with his remains inside.
The court has heard that the victim's remains were found in the passenger seat of the burning car and he was so badly burned that he had to be identified by DNA analysis.
Whelan was well-known to gardai for his involvement in serious and organised crime for more than two decades.
He had been shot a number of times in a previous murder attempt two months before his death.
Four men have been jailed for their roles in that attempted murder.
Last October, Moran, 52, who had been on trial at the time for murder at the Central Criminal Court, pleaded guilty to being the getaway driver for the fatal shooting.
His co-accused and nephew Anthony Casserly, 25, also of Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin, then pleaded guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of Whelan.
Both pleas were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
Read more
The life and death of a gregarious gangster
Accused plead guilty to lesser charges
The court has heard that Casserly had used his friendship to "lure" Whelan to a night out under the pretence of inviting him to watch a football match between Ireland and Denmark.
Instead, Whelan was repeatedly shot before his body was left in a burning car.
Evidence has been given that when news broke that it was likely Whelan who had been killed and set alight in the vehicle, Casserly went to Whelan's family home to "comfort" his mother.
Last January, Casserly was sentenced to nine years in prison with the final two years suspended.
Before delivering Moran's sentence today, Mr Justice Keane said that Whelan was murdered between 7pm and 8pm on 18 November.
The deceased and Casserly were known to each other and friends, he said. He added that there was no suggestion of any direct contact between Whelan and Moran, whereas Casserly and Whelan had been in contact with each other that day.
Regarding Whelan, Mr Justice Keane said he was the subject of a prior murder attempt and had been shot several times but survived. Whelan, he said, was therefore careful about his own safety.
CCTV showed Whelan getting into the front passenger seat of a Toyota Corolla driven by Casserly on the night, the judge said.
At 7.45pm, the Toyota, which was parked in the Mount Andrew estate, could be seen bursting into flames with Whelan's body in the front passenger seat.
The judge said a Volkswagen car driven by Moran was seen leaving the Mount Andrew estate. The Volkswagen was owned by Casserly, but driven extensively by Moran, he added.
Moran, the judge said, was stopped by gardaí the next day when he was driving the Volkswagen and the vehicle was seized.
He acknowledged to gardaí that he had been driving the Volkswagen for some time and had the car valeted on the morning of the murder.
Moran told gardaí that he had been given a loan of a car by his nephew Casserly and said: "If I'm guilty of anything, I'm guilty of giving him a lift."
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Keane said Moran had given an account of dropping members of his family to St Vincent's University Hospital that evening, but CCTV footage had contradicted that assertion.
An aggravating factor in the case, he said, was that the assassination style shooting of a "defenceless man" was a "cold-blooded one".
The judge also pointed out that the circumstance of the actual offence was that Moran had driven the gunman from the scene, which compelled the court to take a more serious view of the gravity of the offence.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Another aggravating factor, he said, was that Moran's efforts to impede the prosecution of the person who murdered Whelan has been successful as no one has yet been convicted of murder, which he described as "as serious as could be".
Mr Justice Keane set the headline sentence at eight years.
The most significant mitigation factor, the judge said, was Moran's guilty plea. He took into account the accused's cooperation with gardaí when he was detained for questioning and his absence of any recent criminal convictions.
Moran has ten previous convictions from the district court, with eight relating to drug offences and two road traffic offences.
Defence barrister Ronan Prendergast previously told the court that Moran's partner had died when he was in custody last year and he had become guardian of their child.
A probation report found that Moran had minimised his criminal offending and that he had greater knowledge of Casserly's criminal connections than he had admitted to gardaí.
The court previously heard that Moran has a chronic heart condition, but a medical report submitted to the judge concluded that his medical prognosis for the future remains good if he can lose weight and the state of his health is very much in his own hands.
Mr Justice Keane reduced the headline sentence of eight years to six years on account of the mitigating factors.
Furthermore, the judge said he would also suspend the final 18 months of the six-year sentence due to an absence of any convictions from 2013 until now and because of Moran's positive engagement with prison services.
Moran was sentenced to six years in prison with the final 18 months suspended for a period of three years. It was backdated to when he went into custody on 12 December 2019.
Moran and Casserly went on trial last October having pleaded not guilty to Whelan's murder at Mount Andrew Rise on 18 November 2019.
However, Mr Justice Keane discharged the jury after Shane Costelloe SC for the DPP indicated that pleas to lesser charges would be accepted by the State.
Moran pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 7(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1997 for impeding the apprehension of an offender. His indictment states that he acted as a getaway driver in the murder of Whelan.
Casserly pleaded guilty to an offence under Section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 that he, with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, participated in or contributed to the murder.
