A BELFAST man has become the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court for a murder carried out in Northern Ireland.
Gerard Mackin was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court after he was found guilty of the murder by shooting of Belfast taxi driver Eddie Burns in the city last year.
Mackin was found guilty of the murder of Edward Burns (36), a father of five, Prospect Park, Belfast, at Bog Meadow, Falls Road, Belfast, on March 12th last year.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Damien O'Neill (25) and for the possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and causing serious harm to Mr O'Neill on the same date.
Members of the Burns family broke into applause and tears when the court announced a guilty verdict.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, sentenced Mackin to the mandatory life sentence for the murder of Mr Burns. He adjourned sentence on the remaining offences until next week.
After the verdict Nicola McReynolds, a sister of Mr Burns, said: "We got justice. We have got this from having the PSNI and the gardaí working together as a team."
Mackin (26), Whiterock, west Belfast, with an address at Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin, opted for trial in the Republic under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976.
The legislation allows suspects to be tried in the Republic for alleged offences in Britain or Northern Ireland.
During the 10-day trial, the three-judge non-jury court heard evidence over two days at Belfast Crown Court from a number of witnesses who were reluctant to travel to Dublin.
These included the main prosecution witness, Damien O'Neill, who was himself shot twice during the incident but who survived.
Mr O'Neill told the Special Criminal Court sitting in Belfast that he had been drinking with Mackin and another man at various pubs in west Belfast on March 11th, 2007.
He said that the three men ended up drinking at the Beehive Bar on the Falls Road until closing time and then they walked down the Ballymurphy Road.
Mr Burns arrived in a car and Mackin produced a gun and told him he was being hijacked. Mr Burns was put in the back seat between O'Neill and the other man. "Eddie was pleading and saying, 'What's wrong, am I being shot here?'."
Mackin stopped the car and got out. Mr Burns got out and Mackin threw him to the ground.
"Eddie was pleading for his life," Mr O'Neill said. "Mackin was just coming up with stuff like f*** off, f*** up, f*** up.
"Eddie pleaded again and told him he wanted to go back to his kids and he had a heart problem. I said 'Gerard don't do it, don't do it'," Mr O'Neill continued.
"He [Mackin] just walked over and shot Eddie in the back of the head. I looked down at Eddie and his body was just flopping. He was shaking all over."
Mr O'Neill said that Mackin then leaned over to put the gun in the back of the car and he [O'Neill] grabbed it and ran away but Mackin chased him and he tripped and the gun fell to the ground. Mackin grabbed the gun.
"I was pleading for my life, 'Don't shoot me, don't shoot me'. He shot me in the arm and seconds later he shot me in the neck."
Mr O'Neill said he hit the ground and then managed to get up and he saw Mackin point the gun at him.
"It was just clicking, it wasn't firing," he said.
He said that Mackin drove away and he managed to stagger to the road where a passing taxi stopped and took him to hospital. He said that despite surgery, the bullet was still lodged in his neck.