A hired hit man has been jailed for life at the Central Criminal Court after pleading guilty to the murder of a night club bouncer, who was shot in the head in front of his wife outside their Limerick home in 2002.
Englishman James Martin Cahill (30) with an address at Highfield Lane, Quinton, Birmingham was to be paid €10,000 for the murder of father-of-two Brian Fitzgerald who he shot in the back of the head after he fell to the ground.
The hit was ordered by members of a Limerick gang to whom Mr Fitzgerald had refused entry at Doc's nightclub in Limerick city, where he was head of security.
They threatened to kill him and a shot was fired through his bedroom window in the December previous to his murder on November 29th.
Detective Sergeant Seamus Nolan from Henry Street Garda Station told prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, Cahill was one of two assailants who had gone to Mr Fitzgerald's house at Brookhaven Walk in Corbally in Limerick.
Both were wearing motorcycle helmets and waited in bushes for Mr Fitzgerald who was returning home from work in the early hours of the morning.
Detective Sergeant Nolan said Mr Fitzgerald struggled and shouted at the two men before a number of shots were discharged and he fell to the ground injured.
Cahill pursued him, caught up with him and shot him twice in the back of the head as he lay on the ground.
The State Pathologist found he died as a result of lacerations to his brain and a fractured skull due to bullet injuries. He had also been shot in the chest.
Gardai went to see Cahill at Port Laois Prison in May this year after he > expressed a wish to meet with them.
There he appeared edgy and nervous and claimed: "They are going to kill me."
He made a request to be transferred to a more secure location, before he confessed to the murder and named other people alleged to be involved.
He told gardai: "I shot him and no one else. I want to get this out of my system, I want to get this out in the open."
He said he had gone to a meeting before the murder where he first heard of the plans to kill Mr Fitzgerald.
He said he was to be paid €10,000 in two tranches of €5,000 each.
He said a named individual showed him how to use a firearm and told him to "Put one in that c***'s head" before starting to laugh.