Alan Wilson acquitted of Marioara Rostas murder

A Dublin man has been acquitted of murdering 18-year-old Marioara Rostas who was shot four times in the head and dumped in a shallow grave in Wicklow.

It took the jury just under three hours to acquit Alan Wilson of New Street Gardens, who had denied killing the Romanian teenager at a house on Brabazon Street in The Coombe in January 2008.

Alan Wilson showed no reaction to the acquittal.

Eighteen-year-old Marioara was last seen by her younger brother getting into a car at the back of Trinity College while out begging on January 6, 2008.

Four years after her disappearance, gardaí found her body wrapped in plastic in a foetal position in a shallow grave in the Wicklow Mountains.

They were led there by convicted criminal Fergus O'Hanlon - a vital state witness - who testified that he had helped Alan Wilson dispose of the body.

O'Hanlon was granted immunity from prosecution but the defence argued that his evidence was self-serving and full of lies.

Alan Wilson - a father of four - may have been acquitted of murder but he will return to prison this evening to serve out a seven-year sentence for an unrelated meat cleaver attack.