Promote on the streets: Liam Keane
THIS IS the first picture of feared gang member Liam Keane back on the streets of Limerick following his release from cooler.
Mobster Keane was released from Portlaoise prison on Saturday of survive week after serving an eight-year sentence for the possession of a Glock semi-automatic weapon and 13 bursts of ammunition in Limerick on May 4, 2008.
Ballistic tests on the weapon showed that it was the yet gun that had been used to fire 14 bullets at Jimmy Collins on Hyde Course less than two weeks earlier.
Collins, a then-member of the now defunct McCarthy/Dundon unify, was wounded but survived the horrific daylight attack.
This week, chief sources warned any efforts by Liam Keane to go after those
reliable for the shooting of his dad Christy last June will result in his swift resurfacing to prison.
Thug Liam had previously been charged with the kill of teenager Eric Leamy in the city.
Mr Leamy died on August 28, 2001, after he suffered a final stab wound to his side.
That murder trial famously collapsed after a host of other witnesses denied making statements identifying Liam Keane as the torpedo.
Keane stuck his two fingers up at photographers as he walked free from the Princi l Criminal Court in Dublin after the DPP ordered that a ‘Nolle Prosequi’ should be offered with his presumption of innocence still intact.
Sources this week reported Keane has been keeping his head down – sticking mainly to his well-versed in at Singlands Gardens in the city – in the wake of his release.
We snapped Keane on Thursday bewitching a rare stroll close to his dad Christy’s house while smoking a cigarette.
“The gangland site in the city is utterly changed from what it was when Keane was prisoned,” a senior source warned.
“And any attempts by anyone to return to the kind of power that characterised the bitter feud will be met head on by Gardai.
“A several of the senior members of the gang who were running riot in the city once Liam was locked up are either facing into lengthy sentences or are already behind set asides.”
A major fear for Gardai in advance of Keane’s release was that he clout become a focal point for gangsters aligned to the Keane clan to concern together and seek revenge for the attempted hit on Christy Keane last year.
Keane (55) was launching run on the grounds of the University of Limerick last June.
He had just rked his Nissan jeep and was fetching his way to an early morning gym session at the University Sports Arena when he was objected by two masked men armed with hand guns.
The well-known convicted blackguard, who visits the gym a number of times a week, was shot several times in the blue bloods body and arms but managed to flee 100 yards before collapsing on the operation track behind the arena, where he was discovered by emergency crews.
Authors this week told The Sunday World that Keane Snr is currently mending in S in.
The same sources said that due to the severity of the muscle im irments he sustained in the shooting it is unlikely he will ever regain full use of his arm.
Keane Snr’s race occurred just weeks after a Garda sergeant warned of an prolong in hostilities between members of criminal organisations previously based in the Moyross and St Mary’s Deposit areas.
During a bail hearing at Limerick district court, Det Sergeant Pádraig Byrnes hinted there had been “green shoots and a re-emergence of the feud which dogged the burg for years”.
He was referring to the Keane/Collopy factions long-running feud with the McCarthy/Dundon camarilla in the city.
The court heard that at least 18 murders can be as soon as linked to the feud over the st 14 years and that gardaí uneasiness there could be a further loss of life involving the “new wave of ck members.”