Patrick Gillane was found guilty of soliciting two men to murder his wife and has been remanded in custody for sentence on Monday. The maximum sentence that can be imposed by Judge Joseph Mathews is 10 years' imprisonment. The jury of eight women and four men at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court unanimously convicted Gillane after the six-day trial.
Gillane (34), of Glenbrack, Gort, Co Galway, had pleaded not guilty to soliciting Mr Christopher Bolger and Mr Michael Doyle in Dublin on a date unknown in January 1994 to murder his wife.
Mrs Philomena Gillane's body was found in the boot of her own car at AthloneEireann railway station on May 19th, 1994, about a week after she had been reported missing. Mrs Gillane, who was pregnant, had been shot and stabbed.
The jury was told by Mr Edward Comyn SC (with Mr Shane Murphy), prosecuting, and by Judge Mathews that for a defendant to be found guilty of the charge of soliciting someone to commit a murder there was no necessity for the murder to have been carried out. It was sufficient for the jury to be satisfied the offence of soliciting someone to commit a murder had happened.
The trial also heard evidence from Gillane and from his sister-in-law, Ms Bridie Gordon, that they had had a sexual relationship both before and after his marriage. This included visits to the Rose of Tralee Festival and Lisdoonvarna in September 1993.
Mrs Gillane was pregnant before her marriage to the defendant in Knock, Co Mayo, on April 30th, 1993.
Both Gillane and Ms Gordon claimed in evidence the other was the driving force in their affair. Ms Gordon claimed she ended the affair about October 1993 when she began a new relationship. Gillane said he ended it about December 1993 after he revealed it to his wife.
He also claimed his late motherin-law, Mrs Nonie Gordon, of Beechlawn House, Caltra, Ballinasloe, was aware of the affair he had with Bridie.
Mrs Gordon collapsed and died from a heart attack just before she was due to be the first witness when Gillane's trial originally began at Galway Circuit Court. The trial was then transferred to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court at the request of his legal team.
The jury heard evidence from a publican, Mrs Kathleen Bergin, of Mountbellew, Co Galway, that during a row between Gillane and his wife in December 1993 she heard Mrs Gillane threaten her husband she would take everything he had. Mrs Gillane also struck her husband when he refused to go home with her.
Mr Bolger pointed out Gillane to the jury as the man in the middle of three people in a still photograph made from the RTE news video. "He is sitting here behind me," he added, indicating Gillane in the court.
During his cross-examination by Mr Leahy on the second day of the trial, Mr Bolger claimed people could read his mind because he had "a microchip which is connected to my mouth was placed in my skull when I was 28".
Replying to Judge Mathews on this point, Mr Bolger repeated he had been given a "microchip" during a head operation by a brain surgeon in the Mater Hospital when he was 28. He said he was now 48 years old.
The court was told he had 40 criminal convictions and had been detained in the Central Mental Hospital five or six times.
Mr Doyle told the jury he was called "a liar" three or four times by Gillane when he identified him in Mill Street Garda Station in Galway as the man who asked him to kill his wife. He was asked then also in Gillane's presence if he had killed Mrs Gillane and he replied "No".
Both men told the jury they lived in hostels in Dublin and sometimes in other parts of the country. They said Gillane approached them in the Heuston Station-Royal Hospital Kilmainham area of Dublin city while they walked towards Thomas Street after having a Sunday meal from nuns in the Chapelizod area. Gillane bought them cigarettes and asked them if they were working and where they lived.
Mr Doyle said Gillane drove them to the pub to buy the cigarettes. He said he got into the back seat and Mr Bolger into the front passenger seat. Gillane gave them one cigarette each when he came back to the car and put the packet on the dash in front of him. Gillane then asked them if they would "do a job for him". When he said what he wanted, they got out of his car and spoke privately about it. Mr Doyle said he then asked Gillane if he was a homosexual or if he wanted a woman. He told him there were plenty of prostitutes about if he wanted a woman.
Ms Gordon told the trial her sister worked as a cook in a Dublin hospital for some years. She lived at home and travelled to Dublin for work every second week on a week-on, week-off basis.
Philomena met Gillane in Lisdoonvarna in 1991 and they started going out together. Ms Gordon first met him in 1992 when he called to their home to bring Philomena to a wedding.
The couple lived at the Gordon house after the marriage. "I had no say in that," Ms Gordon told the jury. Philomena was off work due to illness for a time in 1993 and went back to work just before Christmas that year.
Ms Gordon agreed with Mr Comyn she began a relationship with the defendant before he married her sister. Asked by Mr Comyn if it was a sexual relationship, Ms Gordon said she was not going to answer that question. "That doesn't come into it," she said. Pressed by Mr Comyn, who said she had to answer his question, she replied: "Yes".
"He kept pestering me and forcing himself on me," she said. He continually asked her to go again to Lisdoonvarna with him but she did not. Their affair stopped in October 1993 when she began going out with another man.
Ms Gordon said her sister became aware of the affair in December 1993. "He came in this night drunk and nearly broke down the door. He told Philomena about his relationship with me and caused a big row."
Her sister then confronted her about going to Lisdoonvarna with the defendant while he sat in the kitchen very quiet.
Cross-examined by Mr Leahy she agreed her sister was annoyed when told about her affair with Gillane, but said that despite that, she got on very well afterwards with her sister, her late mother and her brother.
She also agreed she was questioned several times by gardai after her sister's murder and was arrested on May 24th, 1994, under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act.
She was held in custody for close on 48 hours that time and questioned about alleged unlawful possession of firearms. "I was brought in in the wrong," she told the jury. Ms Gordon agreed with Mr Leahy she denied having unlawful possession of firearms.
In evidence, Ms Gordon recalled Gillane saying on a Sunday in January 1994 he was going to Limerick to buy tyres for his tractor. In his evidence, Gillane agreed he travelled to Dublin that day but denied meeting Mr Bolger or Mr Doyle.
He said he went to bring home some plastic sacks with ornaments for his wife, but she was out when he called to Loughlinstown Hospital. He told the jury during his evidence that he met his wife later the same day and did in fact bring the items back to her home at Caltra.
Gardai witnesses gave evidence of arresting and interviewing Gillane in July 1995. During these sessions he told detectives of "the good times" he had with Bridie Gordon and claimed she wanted him to leave Philomena to go with her. He said she "gave out" to him for marrying Philomena.
Gardai witnesses also said Gillane claimed Bridie did not like it when her sister came home from work.
Gillane claimed in evidence that one detective hounded him and threatened that "by hook or by crook, innocent or guilty the gardai would screw me" because of his wife's death.
He claimed that after his legal advisers complained, the Garda authorities said the detective would be moved but that had not happened.