ROY COLLINS MURDER TRIAL:A 24-YEAR-OLD Limerick man who associated with the notorious McCarthy-Dundon criminal gang in the city has been jailed for life for the murder of businessman and father of two Roy Collins last year.
The 35-year-old victim’s mother Carmel, his father Steven and his partner Melissa Crawford broke down as James Dillon was led away in handcuffs from the sentence hearing at the Central Criminal Court yesterday morning.
Michael O’Higgins SC, prosecuting, told the court that the motive for the murder, which occurred on April 9th, 2009, could be traced back nearly five years to December 2004.
One of the Collins family had reported a crime to gardaí, implicating a member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang. That person was jailed for seven years, counsel said.
Steven Collins had been under Garda protection ever since, the court was told.
The Collins family expressed their relief that Dillon, of no fixed abode but who is from Limerick city, pleaded guilty to the murder, before a jury could be sworn in for the trial on Tuesday.
In a victim impact statement to the packed courtroom, Steven Collins said his family and Roy’s brothers and sisters had been living in fear ever since the murder and were constantly looking over their shoulders “and all because we did the right thing”. “We did our civic duty and we paid the ultimate price,” he said.
In his evidence to the court, Det Sgt Kevin Swan said Steven Collins arrived to open the Steering Wheel pub at Roxboro Shopping Centre on the morning in question, accompanied by two armed gardaí. Just before 10am, Roy Collins arrived to open his business, the Coin Castle amusement arcade, which was directly next door to his father’s pub.
At about noon, James Dillon and another man were seen arriving at the shopping centre in a black Mercedes which had been stolen in Dublin 10 days previously. Dillon walked into the amusement arcade with a handgun and shot Roy Collins once in the front of the body at close range.
He then jumped back into the Mercedes which fled the scene at speed, crashing four times in the process. The two men abandoned the car, which was later found burned out, and made their way on foot to Crecora Avenue in the south of the city. In the meantime, gardaí had driven to the estate, and spotted the two men who immediately ran from them.
After obtaining a search warrant, gardaí entered the house that Dillon had escaped into, and found him hiding under bunk-beds in an upstairs bedroom. Residue from a recently discharged firearm was found on his hoodie and on a glove.
Det Sgt Swan said the house in which Dillon was found “was associated with the Dundon-McCarthy grouping”.
Following 26 interviews at Henry Street Garda station, Dillon eventually admitted to gardaí: “I shot Roy Collins.” His defence lawyer, Patrick Gageby SC, told the court that Dillon’s change of heart came about after he spoke with his grandfather, who had reared him and to whom he was very close.
Mr Gageby said from the age of 19 Dillon had been in and out of trouble, gaining 13 convictions for public order and road traffic offences. He had become involved with the McCarthy-Dundon gang six months prior to Roy Collins’s murder. Out of fear he had never implicated anyone else in the murder, Mr Gageby said.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Collins snr said evil had come into the family’s lives on April 9th, 2009, and they had lost the love of their lives “in a callous act, a cowardly act, an unforgivable act”.
He broke down in tears as he finished his statement, saying there was a “link” gone from his life forever. Roy Collins’s partner Melissa said she wished to echo the sense of devastation expressed by Steven Collins. She said their hopes, dreams and expectations for the future had been extinguished by the killing. Mr Justice Paul Carney handed down the mandatory life sentence, backdating it to April 2009.
Speaking outside the court following the sentencing, Mr Collins criticised those responsible for his son’s death, and said he was urging everyone to be “strong in the face of thugs”.
He said it was encouraging that nine arrests linked to criminal activity had been made in the Ballinacurra Weston area of Limerick in recent weeks. But it was important people continued “to do the right thing” in the face of these thugs.