by Andrew Carey
andrew@limerickpost.ie
THE man convicted of being the getaway driver in the murder of Limerick security man Brian Fitzgerald thirteen years ago has appealed his conviction at the Court of Appeal.
Gary Campion (31), of Delmege Park, Moyross was jailed for life in 2007 after a jury found him guilty of driving hired hitman James Martin Cahill from Mr Fitzgerald’s Corbally home after he murdered the father-of-two in the early hours of November 29, 2002 .
Campion was the only one of the four defendants to be found guilty. Kilrush man Anthony Kelly and Dessie Dundon, who was subsequently convicted of murdering Kieran Keane, were both acquitted, while the judge ordered the jury to find John Dundon not guilty of the murder charge.
Appealing the murder conviction, defence counsel Martin O’Rourke claimed that Campion faced an unfair trial due to the unreliability of the evidence of State Prosecution witness James Martin Cahill.
Mr O’Rourke said that the jury were denied the relevant medical evidence as to the suitability and mental state of James Cahill after he told the trial that he heard voices in his head and that on occasions the television in his cell would talk to him.
Cahill, originally from the UK and linked to small-time drug dealing before moving to Ireland, said that voices in his head told him to tell his story to Gardaí and implicate others in the murder he had carried out.
At various times when Cahill was speaking with Gardaí during his time in custody, he incriminated Larry McCarthy as being the man who ordered the murder of Brian Fitzgerald and provided the €10,000 Cahill was to receive for carrying out the killing.
Cahill also incriminated John Dundon in the murder of Brian Fitzgerald.
At various times in the murder trial, Cahill referred to voices in his head, bouts of paranoia and presumptions that prison officers were going to kill him while he was in Portlaoise. He agreed with Gardaí that he had “pressure from his own state of mind” and had been smoking cannabis and taking other illicit drugs while in custody.
Cahill also said that he feared his cellmate was also going to kill him. He would regularly switch from one voice to the other and said he was “scared of seeing a psychiatrist because of the screaming”.
Stating that he was “getting flashbacks and could see the murder”, Cahill went on to say that the voices told him to shoot Brian Fitzgerald in the head. He was having “mad thoughts – I thought I was cracking up” and agreed that at the time he should have been referred to the Central Mental Hospital.
Mr O’Rourke said there were many inconsistencies and untruths in Cahill’s evidence and that it became self evident during the original trial that a psychological examination was needed to allow the court have a better understanding of the witness and his ability to give evidence.
“It became abundantly clear that these reports were necessary and the court erred in refusing the defence application to have the mental health issues assessed”.
It was clear that Cahill would “drop people in and out of stories without explanation” after he admitted that the voices told him to say certain things.
Gary Campion, who was present in court, listened to the evidence while browsing a philosophy book.
The case before Judges George Birmingham, Garreth Sheehan and Court of Appeal President Mr Justice Sean Ryan has also heard that Campion is appealing a separate murder conviction.
The 31-year-old is appealing his conviction for the murder of Frankie Ryan (21) on September 16, 2006.
Campion was jailed for life on November 15, 2007 after a jury at the Central Criminal Court found him guilty.
In his appeal, Campion has challenged the evidence given by Erol Ibrahim claiming that the Gardai “leaned on him” by getting him to testify that Campion was the gunman or if he didn’t that he faced the possibility of being charged for withholding information and being a murder suspect.
The appeal hearing continues before the three judge court.
