Criminal already serving 16½ years pleads guilty to impeding prosecution of Lucan murder suspect

A criminal who is already serving 16½ years for his involvement in a murder and a gangland shooting has admitted to impeding the apprehension of the person who murdered gangland figure Mark Desmond in Lucan eight years ago.

Charles McClean (35) of St Mark’s Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 was arraigned before the Central Criminal Court this afternoon, when he had been due to go on trial.

Since 2021, McClean has been sentenced to two consecutive sentences totalling 16½ years in prison for facilitating a criminal organisation as well as conspiring to murder gangland criminal Wayne Whelan. Whelan survived the murder attempt but was subsequently shot dead following another attack in November 2019.

McClean pleaded guilty on Monday to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of a person at Griffeen Valley Park, Lucan, Dublin, on December 2nd, 2016, knowing or believing them to be guilty of an arrestable offence, namely the murder of Mark Desmond.

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McClean was originally charged with murdering Mr Desmond on the same occasion. Mr Desmond, who was 41 when he died after being shot at least three times with a handgun, had links to dissident republicans and the drug trade in west Dublin.

Mr Justice McDermott remanded McClean in custody until February 6th, for a sentence hearing and directed the preparation of a victim impact report.

Last April at the Central Criminal Court, McClean was jailed for 8½ years for facilitating a criminal organisation in the unexplained fatal shooting of father of five Thomas McCarthy (55), a man who had no links to crime. Mr McCarthy was gunned down when he answered the door at his mother’s house in Ballyfermot on July 27th, 2020. He suffered nine separate gunshot injuries.

McClean pleaded guilty that between January 25th and July 27th, 2020, with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, he intentionally or recklessly committed an act to facilitate the murder of Mr McCarthy.

McClean’s 8½-year sentence for facilitation ran consecutively to his other major offence for conspiracy to commit murder over the September 2019 attempted murder of Wayne Whelan, for which he received an eight-year sentence in September 2021. The defendant’s conviction for conspiracy to commit murder was backdated to September 29th, 2020, when he went into custody.

Mr Justice McDermott noted at the time that McClean was an important actor in the carefully planned murder of Mr McCarthy, that the evidence established he had given a cue to the shooter when to strike and that he was highly involved in the setting up of the deceased for assassination.

Addressing McClean in 2023, the judge said some of the defendant’s previous convictions were for most serious offences, the most serious being conspiracy to commit murder 11 months before this offence. He said the seriousness of McClean’s offending had escalated dramatically in 2019 and 2020.

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