GANGLAND HIT | 

‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson loses appeal over CCTV identification in Daithi Douglas murder

Lawyers for the gangland criminal argued that his conviction should be overturned due to the quality of images used, breaches of his privacy and over the lack of records

Paul Neilan

Today at 15:56

Gangster ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson, who is serving life for the murder of David ‘Daithí’ Douglas in Dublin in 2016, has lost a bid to have his conviction quashed over his identification from CCTV footage.

In April of last year, lawyers for gangland criminal Thompson argued that his conviction for the murder of Mr Douglas should be overturned due to the quality of images used, breaches of his privacy and over the lack of records on how he was identified by gardai from CCTV footage.

Mr Douglas (55), a father of one, was shot six times as he had lunch at a counter in his partner’s shop, ‘Shoestown’, on Bridgefoot Street, Dublin 8, on July 1, 2016. A semi-automatic pistol with its serial number removed was found next to his head.

Thompson (43) of Loreto Road, Maryland, Dublin 8, had pleaded not guilty to his involvement in the murder of Mr Douglas but was jailed for life at the Special Criminal Court in August of 2018 after a 12-day trial.

In sentencing Thompson, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said “this was an execution involving intricate, advanced planning and coordination”. The judge noted that the prosecution did not suggest that Thompson was the person who fired the shots, but that he was one of the people involved.

Thompson had been driving a Ford Fiesta that was involved in the murder plot. The Fiesta was seen interacting with other vehicles and individuals involved in the plot on the morning before the shooting. It also drove past ‘Shoestown’ four minutes before the shooting, in what Mr Justice Hunt said was a “final check” before the gunman arrived to carry out the “planned execution”.

At the Court of Appeal last April, John D Fitzgerald SC, for Thompson, said one of the grounds of appeal against his client’s conviction related to CCTV identifying Thompson driving the Fiesta at White Swan Industrial Estate at 10.48am on the day of the shooting.

Mr Fitzgerald said the State’s case had been a circumstantial one, with one strand being the CCTV identification made by two gardaí relating to Thompson driving the Fiesta in convoy with a Mercedes Benz, known in the trial as “the murder car”, a Suzuki Swift, which was the ultimate getaway car, and a burned-out Mitsubishi Mirage.

Mr Fitzgerald said CCTV montages were used in the trial tracking the movements of the convoy throughout the day. They traced Thompson and his associates to and from the scene, culminating in the group going to Little Caesar’s restaurant off Grafton Street in Dublin city centre at around 8pm.

The barrister said no record or notes of the procedure around the Garda identification had been taken and therefore it was not possible to test the validity of the identification, which he said was a “very important part of the State’s case”.

“There were no procedures in place and no training in how to show footage to Garda witnesses,” said Mr Fitzgerald.

Counsel had also argued that some CCTV footage should have been excluded from the trial because the recordings were a breach of the appellant’s right to privacy and of data protection law.

At the Court of Appeal today, Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh read out a lengthy judgement dismissing Thompson’s conviction appeal.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the trial court did not err in ruling admissible the White Swan footage.

“We note that the court took a different view in relation to a different piece of footage and was clearly aware of the need for the CCTV footage to be of sufficient quality before ruling it admissible,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartagh said the trial court did not err in admitting the recognition evidence with the caution that it could only be given “some weight” in court.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the trial court’s approach to the recognition evidence “was legally correct and carefully considered”. The trial court had said it would not have relied on the recognition evidence if it had been the only evidence in the case but gave it “some weight, in view of the remainder of the evidence”, she said.

Regarding some Garda witnesses not taking notes around the recognition of Thompson, Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said that “procedural shortcomings were not such as to disentitle the trial court from ultimately relying on the evidence of the two recognition witnesses”.

“The trial court observed the witnesses first-hand and assessed whether the alleged shortcomings were such to deprive the evidence of any probative value and was entitled to conclude they did not,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the appellant had argued that CCTV footage and images taken from private entities and dwellings breached his right to privacy.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the appellant had argued that CCTV footage and images taken from private entities and dwellings breached his right to privacy.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the trial court had ruled that householders who had CCTV but had not registered with the Data Protection Commission were committing an “infringement” but this did not automatically make the CCTV inadmissible as a breach of the appellant’s right to privacy.

The trial court had said that Thompson’s right to privacy was not breached when he was recorded on public streets, “along with the rest of the public in a non-targeted way and where his movements were in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy to murder”, said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

The judge said that the Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court in ruling that there was no breach of Thompson’s privacy.

“Individuals walking down a public street, driving a car on a public road, or even eating a meal in a restaurant open to the public do not, in this day and age, have a reasonable expectation that their movements will be immune from CCTV observation, certainly in a situation where no individual is being targeted for the gathering of information,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh added that the CCTV being objected to was from individuals and had not been created by the State or its agents but had been collected by gardaí in the context of the murder investigation.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh told lawyers for Thompson that none of the grounds of appeal had been upheld and then dismissed the appeal in its entirety.

*****

Thompson is one of four men who have been jailed in relation to the murder of Mr Douglas.

In June 2021, Lee Canavan (34) of Edenbrook, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, was jailed for life for his part in the joint enterprise or shared intention to murder Mr Douglas. However, the court did not agree with the State’s contention that Canavan was “the person who literally pulled the trigger”, owing to a lack of forensic or identification evidence.

In 2019, Nathan Foley (24) of Maryland, Dublin 8, was jailed for six years after he pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal organisation by driving one of four cars and buying mobile phones used in the offence. Gareth Brophy (28) of Reuben Walk, Dublin 8, was jailed in February 2020 for ten years for his role as getaway driver.