CAREER CRIM | 

Man jailed for killing pal was nicknamed The Hyena for being ‘always close to dead bodies’

Gary Magee has led a 30-year life of crime specialising in drugs, arson and stealing cars

Today at 07:09

Killer Gary Magee used to run drugs for notorious Newry dealer Brendan ‘Speedy’ Fegan and hid under a pool table when the crime boss was gunned down by the Real IRA, we can reveal.

Last week Magee pleaded guilty to killing his 62-year-old drinking pal Andrew ‘Jimmy’ Thompson after setting fire to his bungalow in Cloughoge, on the outskirts of Newry, in May 2021.

Having originally been charged with murder, prosecutors at Newry Crown Court accepted pleas of guilty to manslaughter as well as “arson being reckless whether life was endangered”.

Magee started three fires in the property and then tried to escape out the back door. However, it was locked, and he was rescued by the emergency services and treated for a burn to his hand.

The Sunday World can reveal 44-year-old Magee, who’ll be sentenced next month, has led a 30-year life of crime specialising in drugs, arson and stealing cars.

Sources in Newry say Magee was known as ‘The Hyena’ because he ended up close to so many dead bodies — starting off with the murder of his drug boss Brendan ‘Speedy’ Fegan.

Fegan was gunned down in 1999 in the Hermitage Bar in Newry and sources say Magee hid under a pool table as the two gunmen fired 14 shots at his crime boss.

“Magee was only 19 when Speedy was shot dead but he’d been running drugs round Newry for him,” said a crime source.

“Gary was very low level at the time but he’d been involved in crime for a few years by then — mostly stealing cars and dealing drugs for Speedy.

“When the gunmen burst into the pub that Sunday it was packed, and Gary hid under a pool table and stayed there for ages. In fact, I believe he waited until the cops turned up before he decided to get out from under it.

“Unfortunately, Gary, like a lot of young men in Newry at the time, idolised Speedy because of his lavish lifestyle and the fact he had buckets of cash to splash around.

“But despite witnessing the terrible murder Gary chose not to ditch the life of crime and carried on with drug dealing.

“Magee is an alcoholic drug addict who has led a life of constant crime these past three decades. Unfortunately, it’s been an absolute disaster for anyone who had anything to do with him. Jimmy Thompson was a lovely man. Nobody had a bad word to say about Jimmy and yet Magee killed him for absolutely no reason.”

We can reveal Magee has been close to death on numerous occasions before he finally killed someone — hence his grisly nickname.

Coincidentally, Magee just happened to be drinking in the flat next door when violent psychopath David Conway burst into pregnant Belinda Hart’s Newry flat and blasted his girlfriend to death with a shotgun in a fit of jealous rage in 1997.

We can reveal Magee has more than 115 convictions including 12 for drugs, though only one for supplying drugs in 2007.

That supplying charge, we understand, relates to him being caught in a police sting in a Banbridge pub doing a cocaine deal with another drugs gang.

Sources claim Magee was also accused of suppling drugs to a Warrenpoint teenager who died almost 10 years ago.

Magee is said to have supplied him the drugs despite being warned that they were from the same bad batch that had killed a number of people in Dundalk.

Magee was drinking in McCoy’s pub in Newry a decade ago when a dozen masked men from a rival gang abducted him before dragging him up an alley way.

They beat him black and blue, leaving him in hospital and shortly afterwards the pub was burnt down in an arson attack.

And we can reveal ‘The Hyena’ was responsible for starting at least three separate property fires prior to killing Jimmy.

A blaze on Mary Street, Newry, was suspected to have been started by Magee even though the occupants were still inside.

He’s suspected of starting another fire in a house in Omeath, Co Louth, while the occupants were out and he even started a fire at his own flat in Greenfield Park in Newry in an attempt to engineer a move to another flat by manipulating the Housing Executive into believing he was being intimidated.

However, on that occasion, according to sources, the smoke spread to all the other flats in the block resulting in the tenants having to be transferred to temporary accommodation.

Magee is due to be sentenced for killing Jimmy Thompson next month and previous courts heard that while the victim was found lying dead on a bed at his Parkview home, Magee was rescued “lying unconscious at the back door” in the kitchen.

Magee, who lived a few doors away in Parkview, had suffered a burn to his hand and forensic inquires at the scene found that the front and back doors were locked, there had been no forced entry and there were three separate seats of fire in the bungalow — one in the living room, one in the front bedroom and one in the rear bedroom.

Police told the court according to expert reports, each of the fires had been started deliberately by “direct ignition of combustible material”.

They were further of the view they were likely to have been started in the half-hour before the emergency services were called at 11.40pm.

During questioning, Magee told police he had been drinking wine with Mr Thompson and that he could remember details up to 11pm but nothing after that, with his next recollection waking up in the Royal Victoria Hospital.

However, he refused to account for a burn on his hand or expand on his claim that he injured his hand the day before Mr Thompson’s death.