EXCLUSIVE | 

Killer drug-dealer previously shot by gardaí jailed as CAB seize home

Convicted dealer pleads guilty to possessing pills and money laundering after order granted

Today at 07:10

A convicted killer and drug dealer previously shot by gardaí has been jailed in the same week the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seized his county Cork home.

John ‘Keith’ O’Donovan’s run of bad luck saw CAB granted a High Court order to have his house declared the proceeds of crime – just days before he added to his 51 criminal convictions.

The Cork-city native pleaded guilty to possessing tablets and money laundering after a sum of cash was found at his Monataggart home during a garda raid in May 2020.

The search came after O’Donovan was injured by armed gardaí after the car he was travelling in was stopped by officers at a checkpoint in Mallow.

The incident made headlines at the time, coming as the first Covid restrictions had come into force. A passenger in the car was subsequently caught with a stash of cocaine.

Officers later found €1,382 worth of prescription tablets and €8,950 in cash hidden in the attic of O’Donovan’s house, which he told gardaí he could explain – but “not now”.

During a Proceeds of Crime hearing earlier this year, it was heard that the house at Monataggart, Co Cork, was in his mother’s name but he was the beneficial owner and lived there.

The house was bought in August 1997 for €25,300 – when O’Donovan was “particularly active” in armed robbery and drugs, according to counsel for CAB – and he has been the sole occupant since then.

Last week, Judge Alex Owens said CAB had presented a convincing case that the house was bought when O’Donovan had no legitimate means.

He added that it was clear the property represented the proceeds of crime, while €15,000 in a bank account was also forfeited.

According to an affidavit filed by CAB, O’Donovan had been under surveillance after gardaí received information he was travelling to Dublin to collect a consignment of heroin.

At the time of his arrest in May 2020 he was considered one of the main suppliers of heroin in Cork and “has been observed in the company of many serious criminals and known drug dealers over the years.”

Despite his long list of convictions, the detective garda also stated they “do not truly reflect John ‘Keith’ O’Donovan’s involvement in criminal activity”.

During the search of his Monataggart home evidence was found of cash being transferred to a man in Dublin “known to be heavily involved in the sale and supply of heroin in the Dublin area”.

During his most recent appearance at Cork Circuit Cork, O’Donovan was described as a “career criminal’ who had 51 previous convictions, including armed robberies in 1995 and 2002 and manslaughter in 2004”.

The judge imposed a prison term of one year, backdated to July 23 when he went into custody on the charges.

He had previously been jailed for seven years in 2010 for possession of a firearm.

In 2004, O’Donovan was found guilty of the manslaughter of a neighbour after his previous conviction for murder had been quashed.

The Court of Criminal Appeal granted a retrial for the murder of Noel McCarthy in May 2000 and O’Donovan then pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.

O’Donovan, originally from Spriggs Road in Cork, had called to the victim’s home on the same street around 2.30am and stabbed McCarthy in the groin when he answered the door.

The attack came after O’Donovan and another man had been drinking and got into a row with McCarthy who had refused to allow them into his house.

Mr McCarthy’s femoral artery was cut and he later died on the operating table.

O’Donovan’s mother and brother hugged him and sobbed loudly at the Central Criminal Court as the verdict was read out after the jury’s deliberations.

During the trial graphic evidence of the victim’s injuries were heard from the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.

McCarthy, who was stabbed in front of his mother, died from massive internal bleeding and shock due to the knife wound in his left groin.

Dr Cassidy found multiple injuries to the victim’s face, head, ear, groin and hand as well as the massive internal bleeding.

McCarthy’s mother Mary also gave evidence and said she was threatened by O’Donovan and another man when she ran after them.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do when I caught up with them. I can’t understand it. I just followed both of them,” she said.

She told the court that when a friend of her son ran out of her house the two men, turned round to her and asked: “Is he going for the guards?”

Mrs McCarthy said: “I kind of woke up then and I said to them ‘No, he’s not, but I am’.” The men turned round and started walking towards her saying: “Go on, go on, and then we’ll be down for you.”

“I got very nervous and I started screaming then for an ambulance because I didn’t have a phone in the house. I was screaming ‘Please, please, my son has been stabbed. Could someone get an ambulance?’”

O’Donovan was sentenced to seven years for the killing.