Senior Kinahan cartel member pleads guilty to directing criminal organisation

Sean McGovern was injured during the attack at the Regency Hotel in 2016

Sean McGovern was the first person to be extradited to Ireland from the United Arab Emirates. Picture: Garda.ie

Senior Kinahan cartel member Sean McGovern, who last summer became the first person to be extradited to Ireland from the United Arab Emirates, has pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to directing a criminal organisation.

McGovern appeared via videolink before the non-jury court, when prosecution counsel Dominic McGinn said the defendant could be arraigned on two charges.

The 39-year-old, with a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, pleaded guilty to a charge of directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20 and December 22, 2016, in relation to the murder of Christopher aka Noel Kirwan.

McGovern also admitted directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 17, 2015, and April 6, 2017, in connection with the surveillance of James Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence.

McGovern replied “guilty” when both charges were read out.

Mr McGinn asked the court to set a date of April 27 for a sentencing hearing, and said victim impact evidence would be heard on that date.

Asked by Ms Justice Karen O’Connor, presiding, whether his client wished to be present for the sentencing hearing or to appear by videolink, Michael Bowman SC, representing McGovern, said it was “probably better he appears in person”.

He asked that a governor’s report be provided from Portlaoise prison.

Ms Justice O’Connor directed the preparation of the report, and adjourned the matter to April 27.

McGovern, who was injured during the attack at the Regency Hotel in 2016, was previously named during a separate trial at the Special Criminal Court as "a significant figure" with a "leadership role" in Kinahan organised crime group.

The court heard the Kinahan group are involved at an international level in importing drugs and in their distribution at street level. They enforce their control "by violence, using firearms and murder".

The senior leadership is now based in Dubai, with other cells in mainland Europe and South America, while some cells remain in Ireland.

Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan, was an innocent man who was shot dead after he was pictured attending the funeral of a Hutch family member, despite having no connection to either side of the Kinahan or Hutch crime organisations.

The Special Criminal Court has previously heard the murder of Mr Kirwan was committed in the context of the Hutch/Kinahan feud as retaliation by the Kinahans arising out of the Regency Hotel attack and other incidents in 2014 and 2015.

In an affidavit previously opened in the High Court, a Criminal Assets Bureau officer alleged James Gately was "a leading and prominent member of the Hutch Organised Crime Gang" involved in the importation of controlled drugs.

Gately has survived two attempts on his life, including one attempted hit in which he was shot five times as he sat in his car at a petrol station in May 2017.