Robin Schiller

He pleaded guilty to two serious crimes, directing the activities of a criminal organisation that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

But it took the murder charge off the table.

He was initially charged with the murder of Noel Kirwan.

With that guilty plea accepted by the state, that was taken off.

So it was a win for him in the sense that the possibility of life imprisonment where parole is attached as well, the mandatory life sentence, that was taken off.

And that's where we found ourselves down on Monday morning in the Criminal Courts of Justice.

So there was evidence given from two different Gardaí detective superintendent, David Gallagher of the Gardaí National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.

They were looking after this conspiracy to murder James Gately in Belfast, Northern Ireland in April 2017.

and then separately Detective Sarge and Donald Daly, who was based in Lucan at the time of Noel Kirwan's murder in December 2016.

And in relation to the Gately plot, there was kind of six strands of evidence.

They relied on CCTV footage, tracking device, as I said there, analysis of sat-nav communications, and these encrypted devices, they're known as pretty good privacy, BlackBerrys, and these were kind of...

the cartel's own servers where they're able to email each other without being, as they thought at the time, without being intercepted by law enforcement.

And these BlackBerry devices, these encrypted messages, they really give a fascinating insight into the mindset of the Kinnan cartel at the time.

They're obviously a significant plank of evidence used to prosecute Sean McGovern, but, you know, some of the messages really lay out the kind of bloodthirst the Kinnans had for vengeance after they reached the hotel.

Sean McGovern himself was a victim that day.

He was shot, not seriously injured, but he was still shot and wounded nonetheless.

And within kind of two days, you have messages between Sean McGovern and an individual and it identified as Kapp.

outlining their lust for vengeance and you know one of the messages that kind of stood out for me was they speak about targeting the daughter of a man known as Mink now he wasn't named in court but it's my understanding he is a senior figure within the Hutch gang and McGovern kind of contemplates should we do his daughter or would it bring too much heat and Daniel Kinnan

says, yeah, probably would, but, you know, maybe Neddy Hutch.

That's Eddie Hutch, the nickname for the monk's brother.