Man acquitted of Marioara murder
The 18-year-old died of four gunshot wounds to her head before her body was buried in a shallow grave, where it was discovered four years later.
Alan Wilson, aged 35, a father of four from New Street Gardens in the city, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to murdering Ms Rostas at Brabazon St, The Coombe, Dublin, between January 7 and January 8, 2008.
She moved to Ireland at the end of 2007 and began begging with her family.
On January 6, 2008, the family was begging at the junction of Lombard St and Pearse St, Dublin. Her brother, Dumitru, testified that he saw her talking to a man in a car around 2pm. This man told the boy he would take Marioara to McDonald’s and be back in 10 minutes. The family never saw her alive again.
The investigation led to the examination of a house on Brabazon St, the home of Wilson’s sister, Maxine Wilson, and her partner, Fergus O’Hanlon.
O’Hanlon was later admitted into the Witness Protection Programme, was granted immunity from prosecution, and became the State’s main witness.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy warned the jury that O’Hanlon was an accomplice and a beneficiary of the Witness Protection Programme. He informed them that it would be dangerous to convict on the basis of his uncorroborated evidence.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty of murder.
Wilson was then returned to prison to finish serving a seven-year sentence for a meat cleaver attack.
The victim’s family left with support staff. Nobody stands convicted of their child’s murder.
Marioara Rostas’ family have spoken of their heartbreak at losing their daughter and sister.
On RTÉ’s Prime Time last night, her brother Dumitru said he would have a dreadful pain deep down in his soul for the rest of his life.
Marioara’s mother, also named Marioara, said her heart is in pain for life, and it aches for her family and her daughter who was killed.
“My heart aches when I cook and I see she is no longer here with us at the dinner table, never again in the family, and my children also cry after her and their heart aches. She was my good daughter,” she said.
Marioara had only been in Ireland two-and-a-half weeks when she was abducted, after joining up with the family who moved here when her father, Dumitru, lost his job in a Romanian furniture factory. He said he did not condemn all the Irish people, and that many had helped the family and gave them money.
“I condemn the criminal who killed my daughter without doing anything wrong to him; she didn’t know him and I’m sorry that if I knew this was going to happen, I would never have come,” he said.
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