Robin Schiller

And it's always fun to guess a sentence from judges because they, you know, vary so much.

The fact that he pleaded guilty will have a massive impact.

You know, you're normally given about 25% credit for an early guilty plea.

So the judges, the three judges of the special criminal court, they start off with a headline sentence and then they'll work down from that in terms of mitigation.

His guilty plea will be the most significant.

You know, on Friday, we're going to hear mitigation on behalf of his senior counsel, Michael Bowman.

What that will be, it's hard to say.

How can he mitigate, you know, Sean McGovern and what he's done?

There might be, you know, reports from Portlaoise Prison to say he's been a model prisoner.

That might go a little bit towards it.

But in terms of sentencing, it was brought up by his own barrister on Monday.

An associate, Patrick Heaton, was convicted after pleading guilty to a similar charge in relation to the James Gately plot.

He pleaded guilty to directing a criminal organisation.

He was jailed for 12 years and once suspended.

And Michael Bowman made the point that his client, Sean McGovern, had a similar role in that plot.

They both directed surveillance, they were both involved.

So in relation to one offence here, you'd imagine it would be fairly similar, 11 years.

Then you have the actual murder of Noel Kerwin.

Now, the murder charge was effectively withdrawn by the state, but he directed a criminal gang in carrying out that murder.

That carries a life sentence, and it won't be that, but, you know, if you're looking at 11 years for a failed conspiracy, you'd imagine that it has to go up a good bit for an actual successful murder.