Three men guilty one acquitted of abducting and causing serious harm to Kevin Lunney

The Special Criminal Court has found three men guilty of abducting and intentionally causing serious harm to businessman Kevin Lunney just over two years ago. A fourth man was acquitted.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding over the three judge, non-jury, court, gave its verdicts in a lengthy judgment on Monday which took almost four hours to read.

Alan O’Brien (40) and Darren Redmond (27) both from East Wall in Dublin; Luke O’Reilly (68) from Kilcogy, Co Cavan; and a 40-year-old man, who may only be identified as YZ, had all denied charges of falsely imprisoning and intentionally causing serious harm to 51-year-old Mr Lunney.

On Monday, the court convicted Mr O’Brien, Mr Redmond and YZ of false imprisonment and intentional causing of serious harm to Mr Lunney .

Mr O’Reilly was acquitted. He wept as his acquittal was read out in court.

The three convicted men will be sentenced on November 22nd.

Mr Lunney was in court on Monday to hear the judge read out the verdict.

Outside court, Chief Superintendent Alan McCormack, from the Cavan-Monaghan Garda Division, said he wished to acknowledge the verdict and to thank the investigation team for their diligence and hard work.

“I want to highlight the bravery of Mr Lunney and his family throughout the trial,” he said.

He said he wanted to acknowledge the co-operation of the PSNI and members of the community in the Cavan area with the Garda investigation.

“There are a number of other ongoing investigations and I would appeal to members of the public to continue to support these investigations and inquiries,” the Chief Supt added.

The trial heard Mr Lunney, an executive at Quinn Industrial Holdings, was on 17th September 2019, bundled into the boot of an Audi car and driven to a horse trailer. His leg was broken, he was doused in bleach and had the letters QIH carved into his chest.

His attackers told him repeatedly to resign as a director of the company before dumping him on a roadside in Co Cavan.

During the trial, which began in June and ran for 40 days, the prosecution alleged the attack was co-ordinated by a convicted criminal, Cyril McGuinness, known as Dublin Jimmy, who died in November 2019.

In its judgment, the court found the attack was organised and supervised by Mr McGuinness.

It said it was “almost certain he did not act alone” and that there may well be others involved as well as the “three front line operatives”.

It was “almost certain there were spotters and others along the route, in the nature of things, there will be knowns and unknowns”, it said.

The court was satisfied the evidence established beyond reasonable doubt that YZ was involved in the attack and had inflicted serious injuries on Mr Lunney.

Among various findings, it was satisfied YZ was in the area of the crime on September 16th and 17th 2019, was in phone contact with Mr McGuinness, who was a friend of YZ, at relevant times and was the driver of the Audi and of a support van which it was satisfied was also involved in the crime.

Based on those and other findings, it found YZ guilty of the charges of false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Lunney.

It was also satisfied beyond reasonable doubt, for reasons including CCTV evidence concerning the movements of the support van and his failure to mention certain facts, that Alan O’Brien was involved in the crime and was guilty of the same charges.

In relation to Darren Redmond, the court was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt, based on CCTV, DNA and other evidence, he was an “active” participant in the crimes and was guilty of the charges preferred.

Dealing with Mr O’Reilly, the court did not accept Mr O’Reilly had no knowledge that Mr McGuinness was engaged in “something untoward” on September 17th .

It accepted the prosecution suggestion Mr O’Reilly provided some form of local assistance in that regard.

It did not accept Mr O’Reilly gave a full and truthful account of his actions and movements, including that he had to purchase bleach for some domestic emergency. His account of his movements was also inconsistent with phone and CCTV evidence.

It noted there was some support in the evidence for the claim Mr O’Reilly was kept segregated from the other three co-accused.

The court was satisfied Mr O’Reilly travelled north and effected the transfer of the bleach to YZ but said there was reasonable doubt whether he knew exactly what was going on.

Based on those and other findings, it acquitted Mr O’Reilly of the charges of false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Lunney.

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