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The killers of a man gunned down outside a petrol station in a Traveller feud must be convicted for the “brutal, cold-blooded murder”, his wife has said.

Owen Maughan was targeted outside a garage in Co Mayo just seven days before Christmas.

He was taken to hospital but died a short time later and now his wife Anne Maughan has revealed her ongoing pain at the loss.

She tells RTE’s CrimeCall tonight: “He was the love of my life – he still is the love of my live.

“To know that the person that you loved, that you cannot see them no more – until the day God takes me himself.

“And he was my life. Owen actually was my life. He still is my life.”

Owen was filling up a water canister outside the garage on Moneen Road in Castlebar at around 3.30pm on December 18 when he was shot a number of times.

The bullets were fired from a BMW estate which then sped off in the direction of Claremorris.

Owen is the third member of his family to be targeted by gunmen as part of a feud with a Ballina-based family.

His brother Jack, 22, was shot twice in a drive-by attack at the same Top Oil Service Station in January 2012 but has since made a full recovery.

Owen lived with his family at the nearby Moneen campsite.

And Anne revealed she spoke to him just moments before the shooting.

She said: “We always did everything together. We are a very close couple.

“He said to me, ‘Anne, will you put on a bit of food?’ So I put it on.

“And then he said to me, ‘Anne I’m just going down to the shop to fill the cans with water and I’ll be back in a few minutes’.

“I had the food on and there was no sign of Owen coming back so I rang his phone and his phone was ringing out.

“So my brother-in-law went down to the garage because obviously they thought something was wrong. And they saw Owen on the ground and they came back and told me Owen had been shot. I didn’t believe it.

“When I got to the hospital then I went into the A&E and I just saw him lying on the bed and I just tried to talk to him.”

Anne added she “cannot accept that he is dead” and regularly thinks Owen is going to return home.

She said: “When I’m walking I look over my shoulder to see is it Owen.

“You know, I cannot accept he is dead. He was never involved in anything that went on but still to be taken from me – just goes to show, how it was brutal.”

In a heartfelt appeal Anne has begged anyone with information about the murder to come forward.

She added: “In my heart I do think people know who did this.

“And I would just love it if someone could come forward with any information.

“Because the people who done this to my husband, they not only took my husband, they took my best friend in a matter of minutes.

“They need to be convicted for this brutal, cold-blooded murder.”

CrimeCall is on RTE1 tonight at 9.35pm.

cathal.mcmahon@irishmirror.ie