LOCKED UP

Gym owner, 42, jailed for helping Kinahan cartel murder of Noel Kirwan by buying gang lieutenant phone top-up

Crotty, 42, admitted he was reckless buying the top-up

• Eoin Reynolds

• Published: 19:37, 15 May 2024

• Published: Invalid Date,

A GYM owner who helped the Kinahan cartel by buying his friend – a leading member of the gang – a top-up for a phone used to coordinate the murder of an innocent man has been jailed for two years.

Michael Crotty, 42, admitted that in buying the €20 top-up for Sean McGovern, he was reckless as to whether it would be used by the Kinahan criminal organisation in the commission of a serious offence.

The court heard that the phone which was topped up using the payment made by Crotty was used to coordinate the 2016 murder of Noel Kirwan.

Kirwan had no involvement in criminality but was targeted by the Kinahan cartel because they mistakenly believed he was linked to the Hutch gang.

At the time, the Kinahans were targeting members of the Hutch gang who they held responsible for an attack at the Regency Hotel in which senior Kinahan gangster David Byrne was shot dead.

At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing at the three-judge court, presiding judge Ms Justice Caroline Biggs accepted that while Crotty was reckless as to whether the top-up would be used in the commission of a crime, there was no evidence he knew it would be used in a murder.

However, she said the fact it was used in a murder is an aggravating feature as is the evidence from a senior garda that the Kinahan organisation is an international criminal gang involved in murder, the importation and distribution of drugs, and other crimes.

She set a headline sentence of six years but reduced that to two years after considering mitigating circumstances including Crotty’s guilty plea and lack of previous convictions.

She said Crotty has never been on the garda radar before or since and is a highly regarded employer in his Tipperary community where he runs a successful gym.

Crotty is the fourth person to be jailed for offences related to Mr Kirwan’s murder and gardai are pursuing further lines of inquiry.

At a hearing in April, Mr Kirwan’s daughter Donna Kirwan said she hopes Crotty will “never see the light of day again”.

Members of the Kirwan family have described the devastating impact the murder has had on them

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Mr Kirwan, 62, was shot dead as he sat next to his partner in his car outside his home on St Ronan’s Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 on December 22, 2016.

He suffered eight gunshot wounds in total to his head, right arm, chest and abdomen.

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