intimidation | 

Witness in Garda probe into dirty cop John ‘Spud’ Murphy threatened and has car set alight

Vehicles have been torched and threats made in bid to intimidate financier who claims Garda demanded cash payments

Nicola Tallant

Today at 09:41

This is the moment when the car of a prominent financier, who is one of a number of important witnesses in the Garda investigation into corruption by dirty cop John ‘Spud’ Murphy, is set alight in a terrifying campaign of intimidation.

The businessman has also told officers that he was shown a gun at the door of his Dublin home by a thug who has demanded a property from him.

Gardai, under the local Superintendent, are expected to ramp-up security around the financier and his family after a shocking escalation of threats and intimidation in recent weeks.

He has made allegations to detectives from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI) that he was asked for cash payments from Murphy and another suspected corrupt officer when he registered concerns about his safety during a long-standing property dispute with a thug who has links to the Hutch Organised Crime Group.

He has given lengthy statements to officers investigating the activities of Murphy and other members of the force who are under suspicion of widespread abuse of power during their careers in An Garda Síochána.

Sources say if officers can prove a fraction of the information they have against Murphy – obtained from a long list of witnesses – it will be the most serious case of corruption and criminality in the history of the Force.

Murphy is suspected of facilitating a number of criminal organisations and acting as a ‘fixer’ for the gangs to move their money and drugs.

He is also suspected of acting as a mediator between criminal gangs and legitimate business people, in particular in disputes over properties.

The groupings, including the Hutch Organisation, are long suspected of investing heavily in property here and abroad.

In many cases, since his retirement from the force, Murphy is suspected of facilitating meetings with a serving officer from an elite unit who witnesses understood was acting in an official capacity.

Gardaí have been told at one point Murphy enquired about moving a multi-million euro fund, suspected to be dirty money, into the Irish property market.

The financier alleges that Murphy asked for a payment when he first met him about a problem tenant who was demanding money with menaces after a premises the tenant was leasing was sold by a receiver. The financier was involved in a company which had bought the property from the receiver.

He has claimed that a second officer, currently suspended pending investigation, asked for a second payment. The pair are now under investigation for corruptly acting as mediators after the tenant refused to pay rent or vacate the premises.

The property dispute ended up before the courts eight times and was settled in the last year.

However, the company that had originally bought it has gone into liquidation and the property is now for sale, with receivers set to divide the monies to pay the debts that have been accrued over years of legal wranglings.

But, the financier says that the tenant, a businessman involved in transport, has ramped-up his campaign of intimidation against him and increased his demands for money.

His family home has been attacked a number of times in recent weeks, with windows broken and vehicles set alight. He says that he is living in fear for his life, for that of his sick wife and that of his young family.

Garda inquiries have found that there is no money left from the purchase and sale of the property as any value has gone into the eight High Court challenges, and the interest owed and will be divided amongst the debtors.

“The financier actually believes that this man is just convinced that he is being cheated and that someone is pocketing a load of money. But the truth is there isn’t a penny left. It’s all gone to the lawyers,” a source said.

“He doesn’t want to pursue this man, he just wants him to understand that there simply isn’t any money and he cannot have his family caught up in firebombs and these kind of threats.”

The incidents are tied up in the probe into Murphy and other gardaí suspected of taking bribes from criminal gangs.

Murphy, a retired superintendent, is in jail for drug offences but remains under investigation for his links to the mobs.

Gardaí are investigating claims by the financier that Murphy referred him to an elite serving officer who has since been suspended. Two other serving gardaí are also suspended on suspicion of passing information to Murphy, but they have insisted that they did nothing wrong and have not been charged.

Hundreds of statements are being taken from legitimate business people caught up in the scams as officers build their case and continue to uncover what they believe are links over decades between Murphy and the criminal underworld.

Murphy’s home was raided in September 2021 and €47,000 in cash was found, along with a huge haul of cannabis stashed in the house, a shed and his car.

He pleaded guilty to having €260,000 worth of drugs and is serving a six-year sentence, while the GNBCI case continues into what is believed to be his long-standing links to major organised crime gangs.

Sources say that Murphy is suspected to have been close to gangs during and after his career, and in particular to the Hutch Organised Crime Group – although they are amongst many.

As well as mingling with the underworld, Murphy is suspected of using his position to provide advice, mediation and even security to some of Ireland’s wealthiest people and those acting in roles to facilitate investments.