A feared gangland criminal who was once a key member of the Brian Rattigan gang has been cleared of rape charges and attempted murder but found guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent following an 11-day trial in England.

Wayne McNally (34) who originally comes from Ross Road in Dublin’s south inner city, was found guilty by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of the two attacks on a man and a woman in the early hours of December 22, 2018.

He was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the same woman two days earlier.

The jury cleared McNally of attempted murder of the man, but found him guilty of a lesser charge of GBH with intent.

He was also found not guilty of raping the woman, and a charge of assault by beating against his wife.

He has been remanded in custody following his conviction and will be sentenced next Tuesday.

It is understood that McNally fled to Bradford after being released from high security Portlaoise Prison in late 2017 because of threats against him from gangland rivals.

McNally was given the 13 year sentence in October, 2009, for shooting a bouncer in the face after he was refused entry into Hush Nightclub in the Red Cow Inn in February, 2008.

He then escaped in a stolen car and was later chased by two gardai, who spotted him while on patrol in Dolphin’s Barn.

CCTV footage from the nightclub showed a young boy standing within 200 yards of McNally when he fired the shot.

A major target for gardai for years, McNally was jailed for three years for cutting a woman’s throat and stealing her car in 2003.

A heavy drug user, McNally survived an assassination attempt in the south inner city in February 2007 when he received gunshot injuries.

He was with his pal Brian Rattigan when the latter fired five shots at a patrol car during a garda chase in July, 2004.

McNally, who was a front seat passenger in the stolen car, received an 18-month sentence for his part in that terrifying incident.

It has been reported that a bearded McNally reacted with relief when cleared of raping the woman by the jury in the Bradford court on Wednesday.

Throughout the trial, the court heard how during the evening of December 21 and early hours of December 22, McNally had been drinking and taking drugs with the woman while she wrapped Christmas presents.

At some point that morning, a male friend of the woman turned up at the house, and the three of them continued to drink and take cocaine.

McNally and the woman then got a lift to a local supermarket to buy more alcohol and some cigarettes, before returning to the house.

At some point after, McNally’s mood changed and be began to accuse the man and woman of being in a sexual relationship which they both denied, and the woman tried to change the conversation.

Enraged, McNally embarked on a sustained, drug-fuelled attack on the pair, punching the woman repeatedly in the face and stabbing her in the neck with a pair of scissors.

He also unleashed a flurry of punches on the man and stabbed him a number of times in the leg, before leaving the house.

McNally called his wife to pick him up, and went home to pick up his passport before telling her to drive him to across the Pennines to Manchester Airport.

A one-way ticket to Dublin was bought for him, but he was arrested in the terminal before he could board the flight back to Ireland.

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