LIMERICK MURDER TRIAL:ONE OF Limerick's most notorious gangland criminals has been jailed for life for a contract killing in the city two years ago.
Gary Campion (26), Delmege Park, Moyross, was yesterday sentenced at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Limerick for the gun murder of “Fat” Frankie Ryan on September 17th, 2006.
Campion is already serving life for the murder of nightclub head of security Brian Fitzgerald in November 2002.
There was a heavy Garda presence at yesterday’s hearing. Armed members of the Garda’s Regional Support Units patrolled outside the courthouse.
Those attending the hearing were searched by gardaí using hand-held metal detectors. A number of prison officers who escorted Campion from Portlaoise Prison wore stab-proof vests.
Campion had been convicted in May of the Ryan murder.
Yesterday at the sentencing hearing Ryan’s mother, Catherine Ryan, said in her victim impact statement that the day her son was killed would “stick in all our heads forever”.
Breaking down, she continued: “He was a wonderful son, so full of life. Frankie died in the prime of his life, robbed of the chance of having his own family. He would have made a great father.” She had found it very distressing to listen in forensic detail during the murder trial to what had happened to her son.
“My heart is broken, never to be mended,” she said. Det Sgt Patrick O’Callaghan told Mr Justice Paul Carney that Campion and his victim were friends.
He said on the night of the killing Ryan was driving around Moyross in his red Toyota Carina. He collected Campion outside the house Campion shared with his partner, Martina O’Connell Joyce, and their two sons, aged five and six.
A third man, Erol Ibrahim (20), was sitting in the front passenger seat. Campion, who was released from prison only three days previously, sat into the back of the car.
Det Sgt O’Connell said: “They were talking, ‘any girls around’, there was a few comments between them.
“It was at that point that Gary Campion leaned between the front seats and shot Ryan in the head.”
Ryan slumped unconscious in the driver’s seat. His foot was stuck on the accelerator and the vehicle continued to move forward.
Campion, with the murder weapon still in one hand, leaned in between the two front seats. He put his free hand on the steering wheel and steered the car around the corner.
When it came to a stop Campion got out. He opened the passenger door and leaned into the car across Mr Ibrahim, firing another shot into Ryan’s head.
Ryan’s blood spattered Mr Ibrahim’s face and clothes. Campion made threatening remarks to Mr Ibrahim before fleeing on foot.
Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, described the murder as a “cold, calculated and deliberate gunning down”. It was an “execution-style killing”.
Mr Ibrahim was arrested for withholding information but later gave a video-taped statement to gardaí identifying Campion as the killer. Campion was arrested a week after the murder.
During the 30-day trial earlier this year Mr Ibrahim resiled from his statements, claiming he did not know the man who had shot Ryan.
However, under new legislation introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2006, the jury was permitted to see the video statements even though Mr Ibrahim was refusing to stand over them in court.
Campion’s 39 previous convictions include one for the murder of Mr Fitzgerald.
He was also jailed for two years for threatening to kill a prison officer.
Other convictions include obstruction of a garda, drugs offences, possession of a knife, threats to kill and harm, trespass and road traffic offences.
