Taxi driver lucky to escape gangland killing

THE taxi driver who was caught up in the gangland killing of criminal John Daly outside his home yesterday was lucky to have escaped with his life, said gardaí.

Shots were fired into Daly’s body as he was slumped over the driver.

Meanwhile, another cycle of gang feuding is feared following this latest execution.

The 27-year-old Dubliner, who raised public and political outcry when he rang a radio chat show from prison on a smuggled mobile phone to complain about his image being tarnished last May, was gunned down in a taxi in a revenge killing by crime bosses he angered.

Daly was shot five times through the window of the taxi as he returned home at 1.45am with friends to Cloonlara Drive in Finglas, north Dublin, after a night out. The gunman continued firing as his victim slumped over the taxi driver whom gardaí said had a miraculous escape.

Five other people — two men and three women — were also in the silver Ford people carrier at the time, and will be key witnesses in the investigation. Detectives believe the fact that the gunman was confident of picking out his target from a group of people indicate this was a well-planned hit, with information supplied about where Daly was sitting.

His attackers left the scene in a jeep, later found burnt out at Scribblestown Park less than a mile away. Superintendent John Harnett who is leading the murder hunt appealed to anyone who saw the jeep, described as “dark coloured, clean and well-kept”, to contact them. Supt Harnett also revealed that Daly had been warned following his release from jail, in recent weeks, that there were orders to kill him circulating among the criminal fraternity. However, it is believed he defiantly carried on life as normal.

A friend of the Daly family, who declined to be named, said: “He was walking about as normal, going up to Tesco, going up and down on a horse. He loved horses and [motor] bikes. The last sunny day we had, every child in the nation was around with him, getting goes on his quad bike. At the last Smithfield [market], he bought horses and had them up in the field. That’s where he’d be today, up checking on the horses.”

Daly lived close to where he died, in the family home where he grew up with three sisters and two brothers. His parents, and a sister who lives a few doors away, ran to his aid after hearing the commotion. He was rushed by ambulance to the Mater Hospital, but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Gardai have confirmed, however, that the gunman shot Daly with a handgun.

The shooting brought swift political condemnation. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: “As a community and as a system we have to stop being tolerant of these people. They’re vicious thugs and they have to be treated accordingly.”

Labour urged the expansion of the State’s witness protection programme to encourage witnesses to assist gardaí in solving, and preventing, murders.

“Given the nature of these killings it will almost certainly lead to further retaliatory killings,” said justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte.

Supt Harnett acknowledged that local people might be afraid to help gardaí, but he said: “Any information will be treated in the strictest confidence.”

In an estate littered with burnt out bonfires and graffiti cursing the gardaí, however, locals were reluctant to speak even to reporters.

One woman who was cleaning up wood shavings after a carpenter had been to fix her front door, which was kicked in on Friday night, said she was terrified. “I keep thinking they were looking for John Daly and got the wrong house. I keep thinking they could have put a gun to my husband’s head or to my children.”

She pointed to a house that has been boarded up since the family who lived there fled after being terrorised by local thugs.

“Every night it was either their windows, their door or their van being smashed. They couldn’t stay.”

She hadn’t notified the gardaí about the attack on her own home. “They just write it down and keep it on file but nothing happens.”