The Irish killer of a Dublin man attacked with a knuckle duster and stabbed in a ‘love triangle’ murder has escaped with a prison sentence of just six years after striking a plea bargain deal less than a week before the start of his trial.
Wayne Walsh had been warned he could spend nearly two decades behind bars after being charged with slaying Carl Carr at a Costa Blanca flat.
But in an unexpected twist the 37-year-old, caught bragging on TikTok he was ‘chilling like a villain’ following his unexpected release on bail ahead of trial, today sealed the shock deal which will mean he gets only one third of the 18-year prison term he was facing.
And despite confessing to Carl’s homicide and unlawful possession of a firearm as part of the agreement, he has astonishingly been allowed to remain on bail so he can get his affairs in order before having to start his jail sentence.
He has been told he must turn up at prison between March 11th and 20th – and face arrest if he fails to show.
A second man, Kilkenny-born Simon Fahy, died in October 2023 aged just 31 after Spanish authorities made a second attempt to have him extradited from Ireland so he also could face trial for Carl’s murder.
He and Walsh had been accused of fatally attacking their victim with the knuckle duster and knife at the apartment they all shared in Torrevieja south of Alicante in the early hours of September 17th, 2018.
Public prosecutors had alleged in a pre-trial indictment Fahy saw Carr having sex with Walsh’s part-time British model ex-partner Milly Leonard at the flat following a night out and went to a nearby pub his pal was drinking at to alert him.
They claimed they had attacked the Irishman “by common and prior agreement, acting with the intention of ending his life.”
And they went on to allege the pair called in a Spaniard named as Alberto Fernandez Camino to help them carry out a Reservoir Dogs-style clean-up of the crime scene after killing dad-of-two Carl before removing his body in the boot of Walsh’s Audi A4 and burying it a 20 minute drive away.
Carl’s body was discovered buried in woodland by the AP-7 motorway between the Costa Blanca towns of Benijofar and Algorfa at the end of January 2019, just over five months after he was last seen.
Walsh was one of five suspects due to go on trial all of next week at a court in Elche a 45-minute drive north of Torrevieja from Monday onwards.
The others were his 29-year-old ex Milly Leonard, full name Emilia Nicole Leonard Phillips; bar worker Natalie Jane Edwards, 35; 45-year-old Anna Marie Hudson, and the Spanish man accused of helping Fahy and Walsh bury Carl Carr, 35 when he was killed.
All five went to court in Elche today to finalise and sign plea bargain deals agreed with public prosecutors and a lawyer acting for Carl’s mum Marie.
The three women and the Spanish man charged with concealment – and facing up to three years in prison if convicted at trial – had their sentences reduced to just three months as part of their agreements.
They will not do any more prison time, either because the time they spent on remand behind bars means they have already served their sentences or because in one case the sentence was suspended.
Walsh will have to pay Carl’s mum €100,000 as part of the deal he struck, double the amount he would have been ordered to pay if the case had gone to trial and he had been convicted.
He was told he would receive a five-year prison sentence for a crime of homicide and one year for possession of the firearm, a 9mm pistol he possessed without a licence, at today’s hearing.
Speaking outside court social care manager Marie (60) said: “I signed this agreement with a very heavy heart because I didn’t want to put my family through any more suffering.
“This has already done their mental health a lot of damage. I was told there were going to be photos and some pretty graphic evidence at trial and I couldn’t put them through any more.
“Wayne wanted to apologise to me today and came over with a sad face and I said ‘no’. Then as he was walking away I just said to him, ‘I don’t accept your apologies’.”
Carl’s family accused Walsh of making a mockery of the Spanish justice system after he posted selfie videos and photos on his TikTok account showing off his carefree lifestyle while he awaited trial.
One of the videos he posted on the social media app, where he used the controversial ‘chilling like a villain’ tagline alongside a clover emoji to describe his easy-going way of life, showed him driving a speedboat bare-chested with shades on alongside the caption: “Roll on the summer.”
He privatised his account and removed the offensive tagline in March last year after being publicly outed.
Local reports around the time of the arrests over Carl’s murder said Walsh had started seeing Milly again after a split shortly before the killing but was also sleeping with Natalie Edwards, sparking the ‘love triangle’ headlines.
There was no mention of an ongoing romance with either woman in the public prosecution indictment.
Ireland Irishman wanted in Spain over alleged ‘love triang… Read More
In March 2023 it emerged Walsh had been re-arrested in Spain as the alleged leader of a drug trafficking organisation.
He was on conditional bail in August 2020 while he continued to be probed over Carl Carr’s homicide.
The Civil Guard subsequently held him on suspicion of leading a gang based in the Costa Blanca resort of Torrevieja which was using parcel and courier companies to send drugs to the UK, Ireland and the States.
It was not immediately clear today if he had been charged with any offences following the separate drugs arrest.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
