Monaghan deaths
Gardaí suspect a man found dead in his home in rural Co Monaghan was murdered by another man who was then knocked down and killed by a car as he fled the scene.
The murdered man was named locally as Christopher Mooney (60), who was subjected to a sustained attack, including being stabbed, at his home in Knockreagh Lower, Broomfield, on Thursday morning.
The other man was named locally as 37-year-old Kieran Hamill, with an address in Culloville, Co Armagh.
Gardaí in Castleblayney were called to Mr Mooney’s home on Thursday morning after a family member who had gone to the house found him dead and saw another man leaving the scene.
About 30 minutes later, gardaí from Carrickmacross were alerted to a road traffic crash at Ballynacarry Bridge on the N53 between Castleblayney and Dundalk.
Hutch fails in bid to have tapes thrown out of trial
A court has said that a portion of taped conversations recorded by Irish police in Northern Ireland were obtained illegally but will be permitted in the trial of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
Mr Hutch is on trial over the murder of David Byrne, who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel in February 2016, in one of the first deadly attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud.
The Special Criminal Court heard earlier in the week arguments on whether the 2016 recordings of Mr Hutch speaking with former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall as they drove to Northern Ireland should be admitted.
The prosecution had argued that the recordings should be permitted as the recording device was deployed, retrieved and downloaded in the Republic.
Reading out the decision, Ms Justice Tara Burns said that An Garda Siochana had “no authority” to investigate or gather evidence “in another jurisdiction” but would admit it as evidence in the current murder trial.
Murderer Graham Dwyer warned in court to stop interrupting
Murderer Graham Dwyer had to be spoken to by his legal team on Friday after he repeatedly interrupted his appeal hearing and denied that he texted his victim Elaine O'Hara that he would "love to stab a girl to death sometime" and that "blood turns me on".
Dwyer (50), who murdered the vulnerable care worker for his sexual gratification in 2012, is appealing his conviction. His lawyers are arguing that the retention of mobile phone data used in the case is an "opportunistic form of mass surveillance" that transforms phones into tracking devices that can reveal a detailed picture of every aspect of a person's life.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Dwyer repeatedly interrupted Sean Guerin SC, for the DPP, to deny text messages attributed to him.
Daniel Goulding jailed for 18 years for attempted murder of two gardaí
A 39-year-old man has been jailed for 18 years for the attempted murder of two gardaí who were shot after he opened fire from a bedroom window at his home in West Dublin last year.
Sentencing Daniel Goulding at the Central Criminal Court on Friday to 20 years in prison with the final two years suspended, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said these offences were of the most serious kind, and he had considered imposing a sentence of life in prison.
However, he said to impose a life sentence would give little or no allowance to the mitigating factors of the case, including the fact that Goulding suffered from a mental illness.
Goulding of Whitechapel Grove, Clonsilla, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of two detective gardaí at his family home on May 25th, 2021.
Murdered man ‘may have been shot as part of cross-border drugs feud’
A man shot repeatedly in Newry may have been murdered as part of cross-border criminal gang drugs feud, police said.
A PSNI superintendent described Thursday’s killing in Co Down as “brutal and senseless”.
The shooting happened in the residential Ardcarn Park area soon after 6pm.
The 58-year-old victim died at the scene.
