The jury will begin deliberating at the Central Criminal Court this morning in the trial of a Dublin man charged with murdering teenager Marioara Rostas. Alan Wilson (35), New Street Gardens has pleaded not guilty to Marioara's murder at a house on Brabazon Street, The Coombe, Dublin, on January 7th or January 8th, 2008.
The five-week trial has heard that the Romanian teenager had been begging at a Dublin city junction on the afternoon of January 6th, 2008. Her younger brother saw her get into a car, which was driven off, and her family never saw her again. Her body was found in a shallow grave in the Dublin mountains four years later. She had died of four bullet wounds to her head.
Alan Wilson and his friend, Fergus O’Hanlon, were arrested in October 2008 and questioned about the murder but no progress was made in the investigation until late 2011. O’Hanlon, a convicted criminal, then told gardaí he could help locate the body and give information about the crime. O’Hanlon, who has immunity from prosecution, has since told the trial that he arrived home on January 8th, 2008, to find a girl dead in his house and Mr Wilson with a gun in his hand. He said that he felt sick but helped his friend bury her body and later cleaned up the scene.
Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, told the jury that it had got “a master class in perjury” from O’Hanlon. He noted that he had come forward with information only when being questioned about another crime.
However, Seán Gillane SC, prosecuting, said that given the context, the evidence was never going to come from an altar boy. He said that O’Hanlon had already gotten away with his crime of assisting a killer when he decided to help gardaí.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy has warned the jury of 10 men and two women that O’Hanlon was an accomplice and a beneficiary of the witness protection programme. He reminded them of a number of benefits he had received, including money, accommodation and the decision of a judge not to impose a sentence on him in a District Court case. The judge informed the jurors that it would be dangerous to convict on the basis of his uncorroborated evidence and he gave them the legal definition of corroboration.
He has now finished his charge and the jury will retire this morning to begin deliberating.