extradited from the United Arab Emirates<\/a> to face trial in Ireland, had been shot in the feud, the court heard.<\/p>\nThe charges related to his involvement in the lead-up to the murder of Noel Kirwan, a grandfather who was shot dead in December 2016, and the targeting and monitoring of James Gately with a view to a shooting, which did not take place.<\/p>\n
Last month a sentencing hearing was told that McGovern wanted to apologise for the hurt as a consequence of his actions.<\/p>\n
At the special criminal court in Dublin on Monday, the three-judge panel sentenced him to 24 years \u2013 backdated to his arrest in Dubai on an Interpol red notice in October 2024.<\/p>\n
After considering mitigating factors including an early plea, Mr Justice McGrath said the sentences for the separate offences should run consecutively.<\/p>\n
McGovern was sentenced to 10 years for his role in directing activities relating to the planned murder of Gately and 14 years for his role in the lead-up to the killing of Kirwan.<\/p>\n
McGrath said the court had established that McGovern was a senior member of the Kinahan gang and was a \u201cconfidant of those in the higher echelons\u201d in the organisation, who placed a \u201chigh degree of trust and competence\u201d in him.<\/p>\n
The judge said the Kinahan gang was a \u201cparticularly large, well-organised sinister and dangerous organisation\u201d. He said the court had no doubt that McGovern, holding a relatively senior position of the gang, was fully aware of its identity, structure and nature.<\/p>\n
McGrath said: \u201cMr McGovern knew in each instance he was directing preparations for murder and did so intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Det Supt Dave Gallagher said the sentencing should be a \u201clesson to those who glorify organised crime and promote it as a way of life\u201d. He said it was \u201csignificant in holding to account a key person who was engaged in directing the activities of a violent criminal organisation engaged in a campaign of ruthless murder and violence which impacted so negatively on our communities and Ireland\u2019s national reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of McGovern\u2019s victim, Gallagher said: \u201cI wish to pay tribute to the Kirwan family, whose innocent father, Noel, was brutally murdered, for no other reason except to portray power in the criminal underworld, by Sean McGovern, working with and directing others, who believed they were untouchable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere are no untouchables, and law enforcement is committed to the pursuit and prosecution of those who are the leaders, the decision-makers and the facilitators.<\/p>\n
The UAE has become a base for Irish criminals and their associates partly because the state has no extradition treaty with the EU. But after a decade of lobbying by Irish officials, an extradition treaty became operational last May.<\/p>\n
It was not retrospective and did not apply to McGovern, but authorities in both jurisdictions made a separate, one-off arrangement to transfer the suspect. McGovern was shot in the stomach in 2016 when a rival gang\u2019s hit team stormed a Kinahan-organised boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leader of the notorious Kinahan criminal cartel has been sentenced to 24 years in prison at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-489477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489477","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=489477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}