Man pleads guilty to murdering friend who was ‘lured’ to a country lane and ‘riddled’ with bullets

A 33-year-old man has pleaded guilty to murdering his friend, who the prosecution said was “lured” to a country lane and “riddled” with bullets in an “execution-style killing”.

Conor Dolan’s guilty plea to the murder of Neil Fitzgerald (36) at Hills Lane, Crooksling, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on June 5th, 2016 came just two days after a second jury had to be empanelled in the trial. He had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge on July 4th.

Prosecution counsel Lorcan Staines SC had told the Central Criminal Court that the prosecution would use circumstantial evidence to prove that Dolan arranged to pick up the deceased from a pub in Tallaght before driving to the remote area where Mr Fitzgerald’s body was discovered the following day.

Mr Staines said Mr Fitzgerald’s body was “riddled with bullets”, with the victim having been shot six times. Counsel suggested that the jury would not have much difficulty in concluding that Mr Fitzgerald was executed and that his killing was murder. The second question, as to whether it was Dolan who committed the murder, would take up more time, he said.

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A second jury had to be empanelled on the second day of the trial after a defence application. Paul Murray SC, for Dolan, submitted to trial judge Ms Justice Eileen Creedon that as the court went for a break at around 12.30pm on its second day, prison officers – one of whom he said was sitting too close to his client – approached Dolan to take him to the cells in view of the jury.

The defence argued that this had created a prejudice against Dolan and the first jury of seven men and five women was discharged.

Mr Staines gave his opening speech for a second time to a jury of six men and six women on Thursday and the case proceeded. Evidence was given on Thursday that gardaí had recovered a burning rubber glove and mobile phone from the fireplace in the defendant’s home. The court also heard that when Dolan was approached by gardaí on the day after the murder, he had cuts on his hand and blood on his tracksuit bottoms.

Following delays in the trial on Friday, Mr Murray told Ms Justice Creedon at 2.30pm that his client could be re-arraigned before the jury on the single count on the indictment. When the registrar put the count of murder to Dolan in the presence of the jury and asked him how he was pleading, he replied “guilty”.

Mr Murray asked for a sentence date in early October for his client, who had “personal arrangements” to put in place.

Mr Staines told the judge that he would “canvass” whether the Fitzgerald family wanted to make a victim impact statement on the next date. The judge remanded Dolan in custody until October 9th, when he will be sentenced. Ms Justice Creedon will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Dolan on that date.

In his opening speech, Mr Staines said the deceased was a big man, standing at 6ft 3in. He said the jury might wonder how the killer got such a big man to the quiet country lane where he was killed.

“The prosecution case is that he was lured to his death by Conor Dolan and that Conor Dolan was a man he trusted, a man Neil Fitzgerald considered to be his friend.”

Mr Staines said the evidence would show that Mr Fitzgerald was shot between five and 10 minutes after midnight, with a number of witnesses hearing gunshots in the area. CCTV footage, automatic number plate recognition cameras and mobile phones would show the movements of the deceased and accused in the hours and minutes before the shooting, he said.