{"id":508892,"date":"2026-06-20T01:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508892\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T01:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:53:17","slug":"murderers-privacy-rights-not-breached-when-gardai-listened-in-on-kfc-chat-court-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508892\/","title":{"rendered":"Murderer\u2019s privacy rights not breached when garda\u00ed listened in on KFC chat, court finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The privacy rights of murderer Kevin Braney, the leader of the New IRA in Dublin, were not breached when garda\u00ed used a surveillance device to listen in on him conversing with members of a criminal gang at a KFC restaurant, the Court of Appeal has found as it upheld his conviction.<\/p>\n

Braney (49), of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin 24, was found guilty by the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court in February 2019 of murder.<\/p>\n

The victim, dissident republican Peter Butterly (35), was shot dead in the car park of the Huntsman Inn pub in Gormanston, Co Meath, on March 6th, 2013.<\/p>\n

Dismissing Braney\u2019s appeal against his murder conviction on Friday, Justice Isobel Kennedy said the court had not been persuaded that any of the grounds raised had been made out.<\/p>\n

Justice Kennedy noted Braney had originally sought to advance 51 grounds of appeal, though several of these were abandoned during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Part of the evidence against Braney during his murder trial was that he met five others at a KFC restaurant in Charlestown Shopping Centre, Finglas, the day after the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n

Braney\u2019s lawyers had argued that garda\u00ed did not seek proper authorisation before using the device and that the trial court should not have admitted the recording as evidence.<\/p>\n

The listening device used by garda\u00ed recorded \u201caudible utterances\u201d between the men in KFC, suggesting they were concerned as to why the Huntsman Inn had been saturated with garda\u00ed the previous day, and questioning why every move they made was being followed.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed had used legislation under the Criminal Law (Surveillance) Act 2009 that allows a superior officer to authorise the use of a listening device without making an application to a District Court judge where a delay might cause evidence to be lost.<\/p>\n

Braney\u2019s lawyers argued that the superintendent in Laytown who authorised the surveillance could have made an application at Balbriggan District Court, which was sitting at the time.<\/p>\n

In delivering the judgment, Justice Kennedy said the finding of fact made by the Special Criminal Court – that the superintendent\u2019s belief was that he was dealing with an emergency – was \u201cimpossible to upset\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the detective superintendent gave evidence that he considered going to court, but felt that if he did so, the opportunity to \u201cplant the devices in time for the meeting would be lost\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acceptance by the court of that evidence is not a finding which we would reverse,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Sufficient quality<\/p>\n

The court also rejected an argument that audio surveillance used at trial was not of sufficient quality to be admitted into evidence.<\/p>\n

Justice Kennedy noted one \u201cpeculiarity\u201d about this part of the appeal was that the court was not invited by either side to hear some or all of the disputed recordings and that they were instead described to the judges.<\/p>\n

She said, having considered the relevant transcripts, and without having heard the recordings, the court could not disagree with the Special Criminal Court\u2019s findings that key words, phrases and passages in the recording were clearly audible and intelligible.<\/p>\n

The court also dismissed the suggestion that the evidence of David Cullen, an accomplice who was charged with Butterly\u2019s murder before turning State\u2019s witness, should have been excluded by the trial court.<\/p>\n

Cullen pleaded guilty to a firearms offence and received a sentence of three years and six months. He was also admitted into the witness security programme.<\/p>\n

Bernard Condon, for Braney, said the court should not have relied in any way on the evidence of Cullen, a perjurer and liar \u201cof monumental proportion\u201d who accepted that he would happily lie in his own interests.<\/p>\n

Cullen\u2019s evidence at the trial was that members of the murder gang, including Braney, met at his home in Brackenwood, Balbriggan, the night before the murder.<\/p>\n

Cullen said he overheard Braney tell another member of the gang: \u201cMake sure this is done right and he [Butterly] doesn\u2019t get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Kennedy noted that Cullen\u2019s evidence contained \u201cmany inconsistencies\u201d, that he had lied on numerous occasions and that he had accepted that he was \u201cprepared to lie through his teeth in order to avoid being convicted of murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, she said the appeal court was not satisfied that Cullen\u2019s evidence was \u201cso inconsistent\u201d in relation to the subject matter of the charge to render it an exceptional or rare case which would have compelled the trial court to conclude that any subsequent conviction would be unsafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our view, no error in principle or law has been demonstrated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also rejected arguments that the trial judges were wrong in refusing to disclose the identity of eight members of the National Surveillance Unit (NSU) to the appellant\u2019s legal team and that the Special Criminal Court erred in upholding a claim of privilege in respect of these members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our view, the trial court was correct both in its approach and its decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The court heard anonymity was required for the success of the NSU\u2019s operations and that no evidence naming the officers would afford a material benefit to Braney.<\/p>\n

Justice Kennedy said an assertion that the refusal to disclose the identity of the NSU members limited the appellant\u2019s capacity to explore these matters in cross-examination was \u201centirely speculative\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a lengthy judgment running to almost 200 pages, Justice Kennedy, sitting with Justice Brian O\u2019Moore and Justice Michael MacGrath, dismissed further grounds relating to a motion to adduce new evidence, arguments that the court\u2019s judgment was perverse and was not supported by the evidence and a refusal of the court to direct a not guilty verdict.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dublin<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Dublin riots looter (20) was a ‘follower’, court hears<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Butterly was lured to a meeting at the Huntsman Inn on March 6th, 2013, where he was chased and shot dead in the car park in view of students waiting for their school bus. The father of three died from gunshot wounds to his neck and upper back.<\/p>\n

Before his conviction, Braney was sentenced in 2018 to four years and six months after he was found guilty of IRA membership by the Special Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

Edward McGrath (42), of Land Dale Lawns, Springfield, Tallaght, Sharif Kelly (54), of Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan, and Dean Evans (32), of Grange Park Rise, Raheny, all Dublin, received life sentences at the Special Criminal Court for Butterly\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

Evans and McGrath were the gunmen who ambushed Butterly, but the Special Criminal Court heard it was Evans who fired the three fatal shots. Kelly was to be the driver of the getaway car, but was caught by garda\u00ed when he arrived at the meet-up point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The privacy rights of murderer Kevin Braney, the leader of the New IRA in Dublin, were not breached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-508892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508892","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=508892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}