Alan Wilson jailed for 10 years over firearms used in Player’s Lounge plot
This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.
Alan Wilson was sentenced at the Special Criminal Court on 15 December 2021 to 10 years’ imprisonment for firearms possession and seven and a half years for conspiracy to murder. Ms Justice Tara Burns ordered the sentences to run concurrently from that date, refused to backdate them and suspended no part.
Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder persons unknown on 26 July 2010. He also pleaded guilty to possessing a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver and a .32 calibre Zastava semi-automatic pistol between 24 and 26 July 2010 in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable inference that he held them for an unlawful purpose.
The conspiracy concerned a shooting outside the Player’s Lounge in Fairview, Dublin, on 26 July 2010. Brian Masterson, Wayne Barrett and Austin Purcell were shot; none was the intended target. Wilson had pleaded not guilty to their attempted murders, and the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped those charges.
Wilson said he sourced guns and vehicles and provided information about the getaway route and where to burn the car, acting on instructions from dissident republicans. He denied being the gunman or being in the getaway car. Surveillance recordings allegedly captured him admitting involvement in the shooting; his lawyer Padraig Dwyer said a recorded claim that Wilson carried it out was bravado.
Former National Surveillance Unit head William Johnson said he believed in 2017 that Wilson was a Kinahan gang member. Dwyer said Wilson denied ever belonging to any gang, while accepting that gardaí had suspicions. In 2014, Wilson was found not guilty of murdering Marioara Rostas; Dwyer said the accusation caused Wilson and his family harm.
Dwyer sought a backdated sentence and a suspended portion, citing Wilson’s health and guilty plea. The judge said no medical evidence had been put before the court to confirm a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. She did not accept that Wilson’s remorse was genuine, but said he regretted involving himself with dissidents.