Courts

Man who helped Kinahan cartel murder innocent victim has had ‘change of heart’ about criminality, court hears

Counsel for Declan ‘Mr Nobody’ Brady says client on ‘a path to change’ and is now a model prisoner

Declan Brady pleaded guilty to participating in the 2016 murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan

Eoin Reynolds
Tue Apr 30 2024 - 15:22

A man who helped the Kinahan cartel to murder an innocent victim is “on the road to rehabilitation” and will no longer associate with the gang, his counsel has told the Special Criminal Court.

Michael O’Higgins SC on Tuesday asked the three-judge court to be “as lenient as circumstances permit” after Declan Brady pleaded guilty to participating in the 2016 murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan.

Gardaí have repeatedly said Mr Kirwan was not involved in criminality. It is understood he was targeted by the Kinahan cartel due to a false belief that he was linked to the Hutch criminal gang.

Mr O’Higgins said Brady, known as ‘Mr Nobody’, is already serving a lengthy sentence for firearms and money laundering offences. He said the delay in prosecuting him for his part in the murder means his sentences have been imposed on an “incremental and piecemeal basis”.

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He said his client has had a “very very significant change of heart, a change of emphasis and a change in his attitude to the commission of offences” since going into custody.

Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan was shot dead in Dublin in 2016 due to a false belief he was linked to the Hutch criminal gang, gardaí say

He said careful consideration was given as to whether Brady would get into the box to give sworn testimony of his intention to cut his ties with criminality. “He harbours a concern that if he were to actually give that evidence he might be the subject of recriminations and his personal safety and that of those close to him might be compromised,” Mr O’Higgins said.

Counsel said Brady, previously of Wolstan Abbey, Celbridge, Co Kildare, is a trusted prisoner with enhanced status, has broken all connections with criminals and has demonstrated that he is “on a path to change”. When released, he said, Brady will work with a building firm operated by his son-in-law.

Mr O’Higgins told the court that Brady is not a career criminal. He came from a working-class background and set up a haulage company which ceased trading following the 2008 economic crash. His marriage then ended and Brady “became involved with certain individuals” at a time when he was attracted by money due to having gambling issues, counsel said.

Brady’s instructions were that he “will not have any further association with any criminal elements whatsoever”, counsel said. Mr O’Higgins asked the court to consider imposing the shortest custodial sentence it can and to suspend a significant portion of it with strict conditions and supervision. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, adjourned sentencing to June 24th.

At a previous hearing, Det Supt Mark O’Neill told prosecution counsel Dominic McGinn SC that Mr Kirwan’s car was tracked after a device was attached to it.

Brady and another man were captured on CCTV entering and leaving the Beacon South Quarter apartment complex in Sandyford where a computer was being used to communicate with the tracking device. The device was initially attached to Mr Kirwan’s BMW but he sold that car a short time before he was shot.

Brady was caught on CCTV in the vicinity of the car dealership at the time when the tracking device was removed from the BMW and later placed on Mr Kirwan’s new Ford Mondeo.

Garda forensic offciers at the scene of the murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan in Ronanstown, Dublin in 2016. Photograph: Caroline Quinn/PA Wire

Mr Kirwan was in the driver seat of that vehicle when he was shot six times on December 22nd, 2016 at St Ronan’s Drive, Clondalkin. Following the murder, gardaí entered the apartment at Beacon South Quarter and found the laptop used to communicate with the tracker and an instruction manual linked to the device. A toothbrush taken from the apartment was analysed and revealed DNA matching Brady’s.

Under cross-examination, Det Supt O’Neill agreed with Mr O’Higgins that Brady’s DNA was not found on the laptop. He said gardaí are not in a position to say who was using the laptop to monitor the tracker and there is “no evidence Brady owned or was operating the laptop”.

Supt O’Neill agreed that Brady may not have been aware of the specific purpose for which the tracker was being used although he would have been able to work out that it was in the furtherance of a serious criminal offence and that a person was being targeted.

The detective also agreed that Brady is a model prisoner and has dissociated himself from all those involved in the criminal group.

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