Third person sentenced to life for gangland murder
Gary Flynn, aged 31, of Rossfield Drive in Tallaght, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Seamus ‘Shay’ O’Byrne at the victim’s home in Tallaght on March 13, 2009.
After a nine-week trial and nine hours of the judge’s summary, it took the jury just one hour and 40 minutes to convict Flynn of murder.
When the verdict was read out, Flynn’s girlfriend, mother, and family members cried out and hugged him before he was taken away to begin a mandatory life sentence.
Mr O’Byrne’s family and his girlfriend, Sharon Rattigan, who was also shot by the gunman who murdered her boyfriend, left the court quietly to finish writing a victim impact statement.
Mr O’Byrne’s sister, Charis, read the statement to the court. She said: “Seamus is missed every day by all of us in so many ways. My mam misses everything that a fun, caring, first-born son brought to her life. Shay had a great relationship with my dad and the loss of his eldest son and best friend has been truly devastating. A cloud of sadness follows him and he misses him more every day.”
Charis spoke of how Mr O’Byrne had been a “rock” for their brother Rob when he was left in a wheelchair after a diving accident in 2005. “Seamus helped him in every way,” she said.
Speaking of her own loss, Charis said his death had left a “gaping hole” in her life and an empty chair at every family celebration.
She said that Sharon’s loss is almost impossible to comprehend. “How Sharon gets through this we do not know. To witness the event herself and be shot is traumatic enough. To have lost the mainstay of her life must be incredibly difficult to even try to come to terms with.”
Once the statement was completed, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy turned to Flynn and said: “I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment.”
He backdated the sentence to October 2013, when Flynn was first arrested and detained by police in Northern Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.
During the trial, Alex Owens, prosecuting, told the jury that Flynn was not the gunman who shot Mr O’Byrne four times before turning the gun on his girlfriend, Sharon Rattigan.
Another man, Garrett O’Brien, of Cloverhill in Bray, was convicted in November 2012 of the shooting.
Ms Rattigan told the trial how a gunman appeared outside their home as she and Mr O’Byrne prepared to drive to her mother’s house. The gunman opened fire, shooting him four times before Ms Rattigan tackled him. O’Brien fired again, hitting Sharon in the leg.
O’Brien fled, but not before Ms Rattigan had taken his gun, his phone, and a can of Red Bull that had spilled from his pocket.
The phone was used to finger O’Brien as the shooter and to link other members of the gang to the murder plot.
A second man, Eugene Cullen, was convicted in March 2014 for his role in organising the murder. Cullen has since died in custody.
Flynn was convicted after the jury heard he was seen on CCTV travelling in a car with Cullen less than two hours before the murder. The pair were then captured on camera again at Leisureplex in Coolock 30 minutes after the murder.
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