Daughter of murder victim tells Se\u00e1n McGovern he inflicted a \u2018nightmare\u2019 on familyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nEvidence also linked McGovern with devices used to track James \u201cMago\u201d Gately, whom the Kinahan gang believed had been involved in the February 2016 Regency hotel attack. Kinahan gang member David Byrne was killed and McGovern was wounded in that incident.<\/p>\n
Det Supt David Gallagher said McGovern was \u201cdiscussing targets\u201d with a man referred to as \u201cCap\u201d two days after the Regency attack. <\/p>\n
McGovern told \u201cCap\u201d: \u201cThey targeted us, they wanted you, this is personal.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGovern added: \u201cI swear on my baby\u2019s life, I\u2019m not stopping now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other evidence from PGP (pretty good privacy) messages linked McGovern with an Estonian \u201chitman for hire\u201d, Imre Arakas, who arrived in Dublin on April 3rd, 2017, the court was told. <\/p>\n
Arakas, known as \u201cThe Butcher\u201d, was arrested by garda\u00ed the following day at a house at Blakestown Cottages in Dublin 15 linked to the Kinahan gang. <\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed recovered a piece of paper with Estonian writing on which the name \u201cJames Gately\u201d and an address was written. Messages on an encrypted Blackberry phone used by Arakas were accessed and photographed by garda\u00ed before they were deleted remotely.<\/p>\n
After Arakas\u2019s arrest, communications showed McGovern and others were discussing the consequences of it, Gallagher said. <\/p>\n
A man with the handle Bon New had said \u201cwe have to change tactics\u201d and McGovern had replied: \u201c100 per cent or we\u2019re all going to jail, we need to get the f*** out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-judge court will hear further evidence on Friday before sentencing McGovern, who last month pleaded guilty to two counts of directing organised crime during the Kinahan-Hutch feud.<\/p>\n
He was arrested in Dubai in October 2024 and in May 2025 became the first Irish criminal to be extradited from United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Wearing a black shirt and jeans, McGovern was brought to the Courts of Criminal Justice on Monday amid tight security. <\/p>\n
With a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, he has pleaded guilty to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20th and December 22nd, 2016, in relation to the murder of Christopher \u201cNoel\u201d Kirwan.<\/p>\n
He also admitted directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 17th, 2015, and April 6th, 2017, in connection with the surveillance of Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence.<\/p>\n
Gallagher, involved in investigating the Kinahan criminal group over years, described McGovern as \u201ca senior lieutenant\u201d in the gang operating on the ground in Ireland. <\/p>\n
He agreed with McGovern\u2019s barrister Michael Bowman that McGovern is \u201cthree tiers\u201d down in the organisation\u2019s structure with \u201csignificant people\u201d above him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Se\u00e1n McGovern sat impassively in the Special Criminal Court as he was described as a \u201csenior lieutenant\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,27006,43],"class_list":["post-421327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kinahan-cartel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}