A woman who helped to commission the 2017 murder of a Dublin man by buying petrol to destroy the getaway car has been jailed for six years and three months.
Ciara Mahony knew Jamie Tighe-Ennis “from around the area” and phoned and met him on the night he was murdered in October 2017, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
She then purchased petrol which was used to set the getaway car on fire.
Mahony (46), with an address at Edmondstown Road, Ballyboden, but originally from Artane, was extradited from Birmingham, England, last year in connection with the murder of Jamie Tighe-Ennis (24) nine years ago, which remains unsolved.
She pleaded guilty to the sole count on the indictment of facilitating a criminal organisation in the commission of the murder between October 27th and 28th, 2017. It is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Jamie Tighe-Ennis died instantly after being shot in the head as he walked along Moatview Avenue, Coolock, in the early hours of October 28th, 2017. A black Audi getaway car was found burnt out in Finglas a short time later.
Mahony’s involvement included purchasing the petrol that was used to burn out the Audi, the court heard. She was seen on CCTV footage filling a red jerry can in a Topaz petrol station that was later found in the burnt-out vehicle, Det Sgt Domhnall O’Connell told prosecuting barrister Conor McKenna.
Gardaí also discovered her involvement from a phone that was found in the car and a limited edition bottle of wine, which was only sold in about 12 places in the country and which they tracked down to the Priorswood Inn, Clonshaugh.
Jamie Tighe-Ennis was socialising in the Priorswood Inn on the night of his murder and Mahony met him there briefly, the court heard. The pair went outside and spoke briefly before he went back inside and Mahony left.
Gardaí used phone mast data to track Mahony’s movements that night. She phoned Jamie Tighe-Ennis a number of times and again the following morning after he was killed, the court heard.
Mahony, who has no previous convictions except for some road traffic matters, was arrested in October 2018 and released, with a file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The DPP decided to prosecute in November 2024, at which point Mahony was living in the UK and extradition proceedings began. Her guilty plea was an early one, the court heard.
In a victim impact statement read out by O’Connell, the father of Jamie Tighe-Ennis, Kevin Ennis, recalled arriving on the scene shortly after his son had been shot and seeing the pool of blood around his body.
“My son was dead,” he said. “It’s with me every day and will be for the rest of my life.”
He said he was sickened when he heard Mahony was a mother.
“How would you feel if it was your child?” he said. “You can rot in hell.”
June Tighe said her son’s death was “violent, sudden and devastating” and learning of it was “the worst moment of my life”.
“He was loved,” she added. “He mattered. He had a life, a future. We will never make the memories that should have been made with him.”
Defence barrister Jack Ryan put it to O’Connell that while Mahony knew “a very serious offence” was planned that night, she did not necessarily know Jamie Tighe-Ennis would be killed.
The detective said Mahony was “aware something serious was going to happen” to Jamie Tighe-Ennis.
O’Connell agreed with Ryan when he said Mahony had a severe addiction to crack cocaine at the time and was under the influence of people involved in organised crime, including two previous partners.
Judge Martin Nolan said Mahony the defendant “has moral culpability is this particular case”.
He took into account mitigating factors, including Mahony’s early guilty plea and lack of previous convictions and said she had been unlucky in her previous relationships which appeared to involve violence and coercion.
He set a headline sentence of nine to 10 years, which he reduced to six years and three months.