The daughter of an innocent man shot dead by the Kinahan Organised Crime Group told a man who helped the gang commit the murder, that he may not have pulled the trigger but the shooting would not have happened without him.
Donna Kirwan, whose father Noel Kirwan was shot dead at his home three days before Christmas seven years ago, asked Declan Brady today what he gained and if it was worth it.
Brady, aged 57 and is who is already serving sentences for gun crime and money laundering for the Kinahan gang, will be sentenced in April after a probation report is supplied to the Special Criminal Court.
His defence counsel said today the man who is known as Mr Nobody has had a significant period of reflection, has disassociated himself from his previous gang associates and “a reset button has been pressed” in his life.
Noel Kirwan was shot dead in the driveway of his home on the 22 December 2016 after he had been photographed with Gerard Hutch at the funeral of Eddie Hutch who was shot dead as part of the Hutch-Kinahan feud.
The Kinahan gang then put a tracking device on Mr Kirwan’s car and a senior figure in the organised crime group monitored the 62-year-old grandfather’s movements on a laptop in an apartment in the Beacon South Quarter in Dublin.
Brady’s DNA was found on a toothbrush in that apartment. He also drove the senior figure around in the back of a car with tinted windows.
Gardaí recovered the tracking device and downloaded the information on it, along with phone evidence, CCTV footage and surveillance of Brady and other Kinahan gang members.
“You have destroyed our past, present and future”
In a victim impact statement today, Noel Kirwan’s only daughter Donna asked Declan Brady what did he gain and was it worth it for him and his friends planning to kill her father.
“You hadn’t the intelligence to do your homework,” she told him, “dad was an innocent man. How does it feel to know you’re going to prison for killing an innocent man?
“Myself and my boy were in that car shopping for Christmas presents,” she also told him. “I wonder would you have done it while we were in the car? His murder wouldn’t have happened without you. You may not have pulled the trigger but no sentence is good enough for you.”
“One day you will walk free,” Ms Kirwan told Brady. “We can’t avoid constant reminders every day. You have destroyed our past, present and future.”
Noel Kirwan’s partner Bernadette Rose was sitting beside him in the car when he was shot dead and told how she remains deeply traumatised by the events that day.
“Any bang or crash brings terror, flashbacks,” she said in her victim impact statement. “I still rub the area of my head Noel banged off after one of the shots hit him. I still see the horror of that night. It was the grace of God that I was not murdered too.”
Noel she said was a very good and kind man who helped his neighbours and was her “legs” because of her disability. He brought her to hospital, to work, cooked hearty healthy meals and the family mourn and miss him every day.
She said she was “very angry” about his “senseless murder”. He was “cheated of his life” which was “taken for no good reason,” she said.
Brady’s defence counsel Michael O’ Higgins said the 57-year-old had “pressed … a reset button” on his life.
He described him as “a model prisoner” who is now in the progression unit at Mountjoy jail on an enhanced status. He said Brady who has been in prison for seven years on other Kinahan gang offences has had a significant period of reflection and disassociated himself from any individuals in the organised crime group.
He has pleaded guilty to an offence that between 20 October 2016 and 22 December 2016, within the State and with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation did participate in, or contribute by activity, or by being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could facilitate the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence: to wit the murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan, contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal justice Act.
The sentencing hearing at the Special Criminal Court has been adjourned until April for a probation report.
