A Dublin man has been found guilty at the Special Criminal Court of the murder of dissident republican Peter Butterly nearly six years ago.
Mr Butterly (35) was chased and shot dead outside The Huntsman Inn, Gormanston, Co Meath on the afternoon of March 6th, 2013, in view of students waiting for a school bus. He died from wounds to his neck and upper back.
Kevin Braney (44), of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin 24, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Butterly.
Delivering judgment at the non-jury court on Monday, Mr Justice Paul Coffey, presiding, sitting with Judge Martin Nolan and Judge James Faughnan, said the court was driven “irresistibly” to conclude that Braney was involved in the organisation and planning of Mr Butterly’s murder.
In his opening address in October, prosecuting counsel Paul O’Higgins SC said the accused “is said in effect to have been the man who gave the orders”.
Edward McGrath (37), of Land Dale Lawns, Springfield, Tallaght; Sharif Kelly (49), of Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan; and Dean Evans (27), of Grange Park Rise, Raheny, Dublin have all previously received life sentences after being convicted of Mr Butterly’s murder.
Giving the court’s verdict in Branley’s trial on Monday, Mr Justice Coffey said the circumstantial evidence connected Braney with Evans and McGrath as well as with The Huntsman Inn.
The court considered it “highly significant” that Braney drove to The Huntsman Inn following a meeting in Balbriggan on the night before the shooting.
The judge said the circumstantial evidence also connected the defendant with a meeting that took place the day after the murder. There was also evidence that Braney met Mr Butterly’s murderers two days before the killing.
‘Utterances’
The court was also satisfied, Mr Justice Coffey said, that Braney was at a meeting at a KFC outlet on March 7th, 2013 where “audible utterances” suggested that the men present were concerned as to why the Huntsman Inn had been saturated with gardaí the previous day. This meeting was “so proximate” in time that the court could not dismiss it as unconnected, he said.
The court found that David Cullen, a former murder accused-turned State’s witness, underwent a “withering” cross-examination by the defence and accepted that dishonesty did not bother him.
“He agreed he would perjure himself to avoid being convicted of murder,” said the judge.
The trial heard evidence from Mr Cullen, who described his role in the shooting of Mr Butterly. Mr Cullen was originally charged with Mr Butterly’s murder but he subsequently pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of a semi-automatic pistol at the Huntsman Inn on the day of the shooting.
During the trial, the protected witness testified that Braney came to his apartment in Balbriggan with other men on the evening before the shooting.
The men were talking amongst themselves about what was going to happen the next day. Mr Cullen said he remembered Braney saying: ‘Make sure this is done right and he [Butterly] doesn’t get away’.
Dispose
Mr Justice Coffey said the court accepted Mr Cullen’s evidence that his role in the shooting had been to dispose of a gun in the grounds of Gormanston College and that there was a meeting of conspirators in his flat on the night before.
The judge said that the court had given careful consideration to an argument put forward by the defence that Braney was not in Mr Cullen’s flat that night.
“Such is the force of the circumstantial evidence against the accused that we cannot accept this is reasonably possible,” the judge said.
In conclusion, Mr Justice Coffey said Braney had been involved and participated in Mr Butterly’s murder.
Following this, Mr O’Higgins told the court that Eithne Butterly, the dead man’s wife, felt she had to consider the matter briefly and talk to members of her family before she finalised her victim impact statement.
Braney man was remanded in custody until Friday, when he will be sentenced. He was last year sentenced to four years after being found guilty of IRA membership.