LIMERICK man John Dundon has been found guilty of the murder of Shane Geoghegan in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

LIMERICK man John Dundon has been found guilty of the murder of Shane Geoghegan in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Dundon, aged 30, of Hyde Road, Prospect, was handed down a life sentence by the three judge panel for the murder of the innocent rugby player almost five years ago.

Dundon was listening to music on his headphones as Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns read out the last 23 pages of an 84 page judgement.

The presiding judge at the Central Criminal Court said that he found the evidence of the prosecution witnesses - April Collins, Lisa Collins and Christopher McCarthy - to be ‘credible’, particularly when there was corroborating evidence in terms of CCTV footage and mobile phone records.

Prosecuting counsel Tom O’Connell, SC, said that Shane’s mother Mary did not wish to say anything as “the facts of the case speak for themselves”.

The head of Limerick’s Garda Division, Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan, gave evidence of Dundon’s prior convictions, which include two threats to kill and one threat to burn down the house of a prison officer.

After a life sentence was handed down, Brendan Nix SC, defending, said that John Dundon “deeply regrets that Shane Geoghegan lost his life in this way, but he maintains that he had no hand, act or part in it and he hopes that some day the truth will come out”.

The trial, which lasted for almost a month, concluded last week at the non-jury Special Criminal Court.

The trial had been listed for June but was delayed after Dundon sought to have it deferred in both the High Court and the Supreme Court.

On another occasion the trial was adjourned as the key prosecution witness, April Collins, was in hospital.

It was the prosecution case that Dundon, aged 30, of Hyde Road, Prospect, ordered Dubliner Barry Doyle to kill another man - John “Pitchfork” McNamara and that Shane Geoghegan was shot in a case in mistaken identity as he lived near the intended target.

April Collins (26) who is under 24-hour garda protection, told the court she heard the defendant order the hit the night before the killing.

Her sister, Lisa Collins (29), admitted that she and her partner, Christopher McCarthy, had stolen the Renault Espace car which was used by the killers.

In his closing submission, Sean Guerin BL said the case against Dundon was “clear, convincing, compelling and irresistible,” and he described the independent evidence, which included CCTV and mobile phone records, as “extraordinary”.