A man stormed out of the dock in the Central Criminal Court and shouted “f**k you and your fair trial” after a jury on Tuesday convicted him of murdering a grandfather who was shot in west Dublin more than four years ago.
A jury of six men and six women deliberated for eight hours and 20 minutes before returning a unanimous verdict against Cailean Crawford, who had pleaded not guilty to murdering Thomas McCarthy (55) on July 27th, 2020 at Croftwood Park, Ballyfermot.
Crawford (28) is already serving a sentence for conspiring to murder gangland criminal Wayne Whelan, who survived a September 2019 hit but was killed in another attack two months later.
Mr McCarthy’s partner, Nia O’Reilly, wept and shouted: “You murdering rat, weasel, pig” at Crawford as he left the court. Ms O’Reilly apologised for her outburst after the proceedings concluded.
The jury agreed with the State’s case that Crawford was the person who fired several times, fatally injuring Mr McCarthy, after arriving to the scene in a blue Ford Fiesta which was captured driving in and out on CCTV.
Following Crawford’s outburst, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said: “The mask slips, I suppose, members of the jury … He hasn’t even the courage to stay here and listen because he knows what I’m going to say in a moment.”
Mr Justice Hunt thanked the jury panel for their diligence and told them they should have “no regrets” and “no remorse” about the verdict they had reached.
Referring to Crawford, the judge added: “He’s not an unlucky man whose only crime was to lend a phone and a van to another man. He’s not a victim of circumstance. He is, in fact, a very dangerous individual.”
He told the jury that as a result of their verdict, “the good people of Ballyfermot”, whom they had heard Crawford “slur” in the witness box, will be able to “live free of him for some time”.
“The amount of people who would be prepared to do something like this are in short supply,” said the judge.
Mr McCarthy, who had five children and two grandchildren, was living in the UK at the time and had returned to visit his family and his mother, who lived at the address in Ballyfermot.
Prosecuting counsel Bernard Condon SC had told the trial there was “undoubtedly more than one person involved” in a “conspiracy” to murder him. He said the State’s case was that Crawford was the gunman who repeatedly shot Mr McCarthy “without mercy”.
The jurors rejected the defence case that Crawford, last of Clifden Terrace, Ballyfermot, was involved in drug dealing and had loaned a phone and a GoVan he had hired on the morning of the killing to associate Charles McClean.
McClean (35) was described earlier this year by a Central Criminal Court judge as a “remorseless” criminal after he sentenced him for calling Mark ‘Guinea Pig’ Desmond to a drugs meeting in a Dublin park, where the gangland figure was shot dead.
McClean, who was already serving consecutive sentences of 16½ years for facilitating the murder of Mr McCarthy and conspiring to murder Wayne Whelan, was jailed for an additional 3½ years for impeding the apprehension of the person who murdered Mr Desmond.
The State argued that Crawford was driving the GoVan and was also the driver of the blue Ford Fiesta seen moving in and out of the area on CCTV at the time Mr McCarthy was shot.
Mr Condon said it was the prosecution case that a group of people were involved in planning and carrying out Mr McCarthy’s murder, with a number of cars, purchased using false names, used.
Crawford took the stand during his trial and told the jury that he was being “blamed” as the “centre point” of a murder he did not commit after he loaned the van to McClean. He said he had handed the van over to a man with “bones sticking out of his face” who was a “mate” of McClean’s.
Crawford said he assumed McClean “needed the van to collect drugs”. He said McClean had previously given him a SIM card to use after Crawford agreed to collect and transport drugs on “two or three” occasions in the Ballyfermot area.
In his closing address, Mr Condon said the jury had been presented with “a tissue of lies”.
In his closing speech, Mark Lynham SC, for Crawford, said it was the defence’s case that the accused was involved in drug dealing.
“You’ve heard nothing to disprove that. There’s nothing in his movements to connect him to this plot,” said Mr Lynam. “So yes, at a minimum, he is involved in criminality – but being a criminal doesn’t mean you’re a murderer.”
Mr Justice Hunt remanded Crawford in custody to December 20th, when he will be handed the mandatory life sentence for murder.
