Garda denies preferential treatment for witness in Alan Wilson murder trial

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Alan Wilson was on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with murdering 18-year-old Marioara Rostas at O’Hanlon’s house on Brabazon Street, the Coombe, Dublin, between 7 and 8 January 2008. He has pleaded not guilty. The proceedings were reported on 23 July 2014.

Rostas’s body was found in a shallow grave on the Wicklow border four years after her disappearance. She had died from four bullet wounds to her head.

Fergus O’Hanlon, a convicted criminal granted immunity from prosecution, testified that he arrived home on 8 January 2008 to find Rostas with a hole in her forehead and Wilson holding a gun. He said he helped Wilson bury her body in the Dublin mountains.

Cross-examined on 23 July 2014 by Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, Detective Superintendent JJ Keane said O’Hanlon received no preferential treatment when he requested a meeting with senior gardaí in late 2011. He agreed O’Hanlon received a suspended sentence for District Court offences some weeks later, after a superintendent told the judge he was assisting in a murder investigation. Keane denied that immunity had been mentioned before O’Hanlon gave his statement.

Sergeant Seán McAvinchey also denied O’Hanlon sought immunity, interpreting his request for a deal in front of a solicitor as wanting his solicitor present. O’Higgins read the solicitor’s memo recording that gardaí had told her O’Hanlon asked for immunity. McAvinchey called this “Absolute nonsense” and said no deals were offered.

O’Higgins questioned Inspector Michael Cryan about O’Hanlon having faked a shooting and described another shooting in two different locations. Cryan agreed these matters did not seem to have been put to O’Hanlon.

The trial continued before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of 10 men and two women.