A criminal with 114 previous convictions who helped a crime gang “snuff out” a 22-year-old man’s life outside his family home has recently been baptised and has a “genuine desire” to change his ways, his barrister has told the Central Criminal Court.
The court was told during Monday’s sentence hearing for Paul Clarke (43) that just two weeks before the victim was shot dead, the defendant had carried out an armed robbery at a Lidl on the Malahide Road.
Clarke, with an address at Coolock Drive, Coolock, Dublin, pleaded guilty last June to the participation in the activity of a criminal organisation.
The court heard that Clarke, between November 23rd and 24th 2019, did, with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, participate in, or contribute to, the killing of Eoin Boylan at Clonshaugh Avenue, Dublin.
Clarke was originally charged before the District Court in March 2025 with the murder of Boylan.
Boylan (22) was shot several times at his family home on Clonshaugh Avenue on November 24th, 2019. He was pronounced dead later at nearby Beaumont Hospital.
At the outset of the hearing, Det Garda Jason Flynn from Coolock Garda station detailed the background of the incident. He told Fionnuala O’Sullivan, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that in the year preceding Boylan’s death, he was subjected to several attacks.
Counsel said gardaí were aware of confidential information relating to a threat to Boylan’s life, which was assessed as being high. The detective garda agreed that Boylan was aware of this information and suffered from stress around the time of his killing.
Counsel said Boylan lived at a log cabin at the rear of his family home on Clonshaugh Avenue.
The court heard that his father, Liam, was driving towards his son’s home when he heard gunshots and saw someone running out of the side gate carrying a gun with a strap.
The shooting at the back of the main house was captured on CCTV and occurred at 4.49pm. Counsel said footage showed Boylan running out of the log cabin and the shooter firing at him before jumping over a side wall.
After the killing, she said the assailant had run out a side gate towards the front garden of the house before fleeing the scene on a bicycle.
O’Sullivan said a silver Citroen, which was captured driving past the deceased’s address the day before the killing, had pulled up outside the Belcamp/Darndale centre one hour and 20 minutes after the shooting. She said an individual getting out of the vehicle was identified by gardaí in CCTV footage as Paul Clarke.
Flynn confirmed that during a drugs search in December 2019, the defendant had made reference to Boylan’s killing, saying the deceased had thought his house was a fortress but that someone was cleverer than him. Clarke also told gardaí that a “fast gun” was used in the killing.
The Garda witness agreed that Clarke was interviewed on five occasions following his arrest in August 2023, but denied murdering Boylan.
The court heard that Clarke has 114 previous convictions, with the most recent for robbery and the reckless discharge of a firearm in Lidl on the Malahide Road on November 13th, 2019, two weeks before Boylan’s shooting.
Clarke was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in October 2023 after pleading guilty to robbing the supermarket. However, in February 2025 the Court of Appeal imposed a new sentence of seven years and six months, with the last five months suspended, for the robbery. Clarke is serving this term.
In his submissions, Michael O’Higgins, defending, said the circumstances in which Clarke grew up were “grim in the extreme”, with instances of multigenerational drug addiction.
He said the defendant began abusing drugs at 14 years of age and there was a significant downward slope after he took a considerable amount of cocaine and heroin, resulting in a long-standing drug addiction.
The lawyer suggested that the court could see if this was an appropriate case to exercise its discretion against imposing a consecutive sentence. He said Clarke was a religious person and was recently baptised by a pastor.
Mr Justice Paul McDermott remanded Clarke in custody until Friday, when he will be sentenced.