Kinahan cartel's Sean McGovern asks for credit for guilty plea and 'onerous' time in Dubai prison
Sean McGovern had pleaded guilty to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20 and December 22, 2016, both dates inclusive both within and outside the State, in relation to the murder of Christopher aka Noel Kirwan. Photo: Garda.ie
Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern has asked the Special Criminal Court to give him credit for pleading guilty to directing the criminal organisation in the murder of an innocent grandfather and the attempted murder of a second man.
McGovern's lawyers also asked the court to give increased credit for the time he spent in "onerous" conditions in a Dubai prison before his extradition to Ireland. The maximum sentence for the charge is life imprisonment.
The three-judge court will sentence McGovern on June 8, having heard evidence relating to his offences and pleas in mitigation over two hearings between last Monday and on Friday.
Earlier this year McGovern, with a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, pleaded guilty to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20 and December 22, 2016, both dates inclusive both within and outside the State, 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, both dates inclusive both within and outside the State, in connection with the surveillance of James Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence.
At Friday's hearing, Det. Sgt Donal Daly told Mr Justice Patrick McGrath, presiding, that the investigating team is of the view that McGovern "planned, oversaw and directed" the murder of Noel Kirwan, a 62-year-old grandfather.
Det. Sgt Daly previously told the court that Mr Kirwan was seen as a "soft target" because he had no involvement in crime and did not know there was a threat to his life.
Michael Bowman SC, for McGovern, said the evidence did not bear out that his client planned either the murder of Mr Kirwan or the failed conspiracy to murder James 'Mago' Gately.
Mr Bowman said the evidence showed that McGovern was at the fourth tier of the criminal organisation and his involvement in the murder plots was limited to surveillance of the targets and communication of their movements to others.
He said there was no evidence that McGovern had any involvement in identifying the targets, planning the intended murders or procuring firearms, vehicles or communication equipment.
He said that those higher up than McGovern in the organisation enlisted people for those purposes and that the operation was planned to ensure that individual cells did not know who they were communicating with.
Mr Bowman said the most significant mitigating factor for his client is his guilty plea. Ordinarily, courts will reduce the headline sentence by 25% where a person pleads guilty, but Mr Bowman asked the court to consider going further than that.
He said the plea was beneficial because with circumstantial cases such as the one against McGovern, there is a risk that "one or other wheel might come off". He said his client did not take a trial date and indicated from an early stage that his preference was to resolve the case before going to trial.
Mr Bowman also handed testimonials into the court from McGovern's mother, his partner's father, partner and uncle. McGovern's mother outlined how he had been a "proficiently talented" footballer. She said he had a close relationship with his father before his death.
McGovern and his partner have two girls and his partner's dad described him as a "caring and generous" father.
Mr Bowman asked the court to consider rehabilitation in structuring the sentence and pointed out his client's enhanced prisoner status in Portlaoise Prison.
He said McGovern first went into custody in Dubai in October 2024 and was extradited to Ireland in June 2025. Counsel asked the court to give McGovern "extra credit" for the time spent in Dubai where the conditions were "more onerous and difficult" than in the Irish prison system.
McGovern also instructed his counsel to apologise to "all those impacted, harmed or hurt as a consequence of his actions", Mr Bowman said.
Dominic McGinn SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said it is "questionable" whether increased credit could be given to McGovern given he challenged his extradition, prolonging his time in a Dubai prison.
Det. Supt David Gallagher told the court last Monday that the background to McGovern's offending was a 'murderous feud' between the Kinahan and Hutch criminal organisations.
He said the organisations had initially worked as a single criminal network before a falling out in 2014 which resulted in a number of violent acts in Ireland and Spain. In September 2014, Gary Hutch was shot in Spain by the Kinahans, who believed he had been involved in an earlier shooting.
The feud escalated after Gary Hutch's murder before a "watershed moment" when members of the Hutch gang, some dressed as gardaí, stormed a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin on February 5, 2016.
They shot and killed David Byrne, a senior Kinahan gang member. McGovern and one other person were shot and injured, Supt Gallagher said.
The Kinahans then targeted Gately because they believed he was one of the armed attackers at the Regency. Det. Supt Gallagher detailed how the Kinahan gang brought tracking devices from the Spy Shop in Leeds in the United Kingdom to Dublin.
They placed trackers on Gately's partner's car and on a car belonging to his sister. When they later tracked Gately down to an address in Belfast, McGovern and an accomplice travelled north to place a tracker on his car.
The Kinahans then decided to employ the services of Estonian "hitman for hire" Imre Arakas, who arrived in Ireland in early April 2017.
McGovern used a secure messaging service for Blackberry phone users to relay information about Gately's movements in Belfast and the layout of the car park outside his home. That information was subsequently sent to Arakas.
In messages between Arakas and someone using the handle 'Bon New', Arakas complained that where Gately was staying provided "nowhere to hide" and suggested that a "silencer would be good". He also said that from looking at pictures on Google, it could be "one shot in the head from distance and that's it".
Bon New told Arakas that they had a tracker on Gately's car so they would know when he was heading home. Bon New added: "When he is 10 minutes away, we get in position. He parks in the same position always."
Gardaí arrested Arakas and found the incriminating messages on his phone. After Arakas's arrest, Det. Sgt Gallagher said McGovern and others became concerned that there might be an informer or 'rat' in their ranks.
When Bon New suggested they needed to "change tactics", McGovern replied: "100%, or we're all going to jail here."
Det. Supt Gallagher said that he has worked in criminal investigations for 32 years. From sources and his personal knowledge of the structure, workings and activities of criminal organisations, he said he can assert the existence of a Kinahan organised criminal group.
The group has been involved in a "murderous feud" with the Hutch organised crime group, he said, while at the same time it engaged in drug trafficking and money-laundering on an international scale.
The gang has a hierarchical structure, he said, with a core leadership overseeing a cell structure which divides the tasks of money-laundering, drug trafficking and violence.
McGovern's only previous convictions were for minor road traffic matters between 2009 and 2011, he said. He was arrested in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates before being extradited to Ireland following a request by the Irish authorities.
McGovern's chief role in the conspiracy to murder James Gately was to direct the surveillance of the target by controlling the tracking device placed on the target's car and pass the information to others.
The Kinahan organisation used an encrypted messaging service available on Blackberry phones to communicate. Each member had usernames or handles, with McGovern going by the name Knife, he said.
In one text exchange two days after the Regency shooting, McGovern told another senior Kinahan gang member identified as 'Cap': "They targeted us, they wanted you," and swore on his baby's life: "I'm not stopping now."
They also discussed going after other relatives of the Hutch family while Cap described the Hutch gang as "scum" and said he would not stop until they are "all gone".
In a later exchange when the Kinahans were targeting James Gately, McGovern described Gately as a weasel and added: "All weasels get caught out in the end."
Under cross-examination, Supt Gallagher told Michael Bowman SC, defending, that McGovern was a "senior lieutenant operating on the ground in Ireland" at the time of the attempted assassination of Gately and when Mr Kirwan was murdered.
He said McGovern was at the third tier of the organisation, with several people above him. While McGovern was directing others, he also received instructions from people further up. Part of his job was to feed information up the channel, the detective said.
Det. Sgt Donal Daly told Dean Kelly SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that the Kinahans targeted Noel Kirwan after he was photographed in a national newspaper at Eddie Hutch's funeral. Mr Hutch was a brother of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.
Det. Sgt Daly said Mr Kirwan had no involvement in criminality but had known the Hutch family all his life.
The detective said the Kinahans saw Mr Kirwan as a "soft target" because he had no involvement in the feud, was unaware of any threat to his life and had taken no measures for his own security.
Mr Kirwan was known affectionately to his friends and family as Duck Egg and in one message exchange, McGovern suggested "putting the Teeth on the duck, to get his confidence back".
Det. Sgt Daly said gardaí interpreted this as meaning that McGovern wanted a gang member known as "Teeth" to be assigned the job of executing Mr Kirwan "with a view to getting his confidence back". The witness suggested that "Teeth" may have failed some previous assignments.
Gardaí were able to trace McGovern's movements to show that he was present at an apartment in the Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford in Dublin at all times when a laptop was being used from that location to control the devices used to track Mr Kirwan's car.
He said McGovern's DNA was also found on the laptop used to control the tracker, which garda found following a search of an apartment at Beacon South Quarter.
McGovern's fingerprint was also found on an instruction manual that came with the same tracker.
Mr Justice Patrick McGrath, presiding, adjourned the sentencing hearing to this Friday for completion of the evidence and pleas in mitigation by McGovern's lawyers.
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