Father was shot dead in front of his family

A MAN has been found guilty of murdering a father of two while he was walking with his girlfriend and children in Dublin last year.

Keith Wilson, aged 23, of Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, pleaded not guilty to murdering Daniel Gaynor at St Helena’s Road in Finglas on August 14, 2010.

He had also pleaded not guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on both counts in just under three hours of deliberation.

Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan said he had no discretion in sentencing for the murder and handed down a mandatory life sentence. He also handed down eight years for the firearms offence, to run concurrently with the life sentence, backdated to November 2010.

The court heard Wilson had nine previous convictions, mostly for driving offences but also for damaging property and threatening and abusive behaviour.

Mr Gaynor died after he was shot in the neck while walking on St Helena’s Road with his girlfriend and two children on their way to their aunt’s house.

A victim impact statement said Mr Gaynor’s young sons were deeply traumatised by witnessing the killing, and are now in counselling. His girlfriend, Sarah Treacy, is in regular contact with a counsellor.

It was the prosecution’s case that DNA evidence found on items, including a gun, found near the scene linked Wilson to the crime.

Dr Clara O’Sullivan of the Forensic Science Laboratory told them the chance of someone having the same DNA was less than one in a billion.

Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, said the case relied “very heavily on silent witnesses and circumstantial evidence” and “all of the circumstantial evidence points to the guilt of the accused”.

“Either he’s the unluckiest man in Ireland or he is drowning in a sea of circumstantial evidence.”

Brendan Grehan SC, for the accused, said there was “a striking void of evidence” in the case.

He said there was no evidence that Mr Gaynor and Wilson knew each other, there was no evidence of any motive and no positive identification of him.

Mr Grehan said witnesses described the killer as “a thin, slim, drug addict-type person” and “they don’t match the accused… the descriptions don’t fit”.

He also told the jury they were being asked to convict on DNA evidence alone.

“There is a difficulty in relying on DNA evidence alone because it does not have the uniqueness of a fingerprint,” he said.