GANGLAND KILLING GETAWAY DRIVER JAILED
4 years for role in brutal slaying of Wayne Whelan
THE getaway driver in the assassination of gangster Wayne Whelan was jailed yesterday for four-and-ahalf years.
Sentencing Christopher Moran, the judge said the defendant had successfully impeded the prosecution of the murderer as no one has yet been convicted of the offence, which was “as serious as could be”.
Whelan, 42, was shot dead at Mount Andrew Rise in Lucan, West Dublin, on the evening of November 18, 2019, before his body was found in a burning car.
He received at least three gunshot wounds to the back of the head in a position where the killer had been sitting in the back of the car. The vehicle was then set on fire.
The Central Criminal Court had heard that the victim’s remains were found in the passenger seat of the burning car and he was so badly burned that he had to be identified by DNA analysis.
Whelan was well known to gardai for his involvement in serious and organised crime for more than two decades and had been shot a number of times in a previous murder attempt two months before his death.
Four men have been jailed for their roles in that attempted murder. Last October, Christopher Moran, 52, who had been on trial at the Central Criminal Court at the time for murder, pleaded guilty to being the getaway driver for the fatal shooting.
His co-accused and nephew Anthony Casserly, 25, then pleaded guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of Wayne Whelan.
Both pleas were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecution.
The court has heard that Moran’s co-accused Casserly had used his friendship to “lure” Whelan to a night out under the pretence of inviting him to watch a soccer match between Ireland and Denmark. Instead Whelan was repeatedly shot before his body was left in a burning car. Last January, Casserly was sentenced to nine years in prison with the final two years suspended.
Mr Justice David Keane said as Whelan was the subject of a prior murder attempt he was careful about his own safety.
CCTV showed Whelan getting into the front passenger seat of a Toyota Corolla driven by Casserly on the night, the judge said.
At 7.45pm the Toyota, which was parked in the Mount Andrew estate, could be seen bursting into flames with Whelan’s body in the front passenger seat. The judge said a Volkswagen car driven by Moran was seen leaving the estate. Although the car was owned by Casserly it had been driven extensively by Moran, he added.
Moran, the judge said, was stopped by gardai the next day when he was driving the Volkswagen and the vehicle was seized.
He acknowledged to gardai that he had been driving the Volkswagen for some time and had the car valeted on the morning of the murder.
Moran told gardai that he had been given a loan of a car by his nephew Casserly.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Keane said an aggravating factor in the case was that the shooting of a “defenceless man” was a “cold-blooded one”.
The judge also pointed out that the actual offence was that Moran had driven the killer from the scene, which compelled the court to take a more serious view of the gravity of the offence.
Moran, of Rowlagh Park in Clondalkin, West Dublin, has 10 previous convictions, with eight relating to drug offences and two road traffic offences.
Mr Justice Keane sentenced Moran to six years with 18 months suspended.