Judge says Kinahan gang associate made ‘schoolboy error’

A criminal made the “schoolboy error” of using his own name and car when he imported tracking devices that the Kinahan crime gang used in a murder and an attempted murder, a judge of the Special Criminal Court has said.

Martin Aylmer on Friday pleaded guilty to participating in or contributing to the murder of father-of-four Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan in 2016. He had previously pleaded guilty to a similar offence in relation to the attempted murder of James ‘Mago’ Gately.

Both men were targeted because the Kinahan cartel believed they were associated with people involved in the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in February 2016, the court heard.

In a previous case the Special Criminal Court said it was “disturbing” that Mr Kirwan had apparently been shot for no reason other than the fact that pictures of him had appeared in the media in the company of a childhood friend. The court heard that Mr Kirwan had no involvement in criminality.

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Michael Bowman SC, for Aylmer, told the court that his client was at the lowest level of the criminal gang’s “cellular structure”. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding in the three-judge, non-jury court, said Aylmer “knew what he was up to and who he was involved with”, having previously procured mobile phones for the murder of Michael Barr at the Sunset House in Dublin.

Mr Justice Hunt said Aylmer would be, “a very incurious person if he didn’t connect his activities with the mayhem going on around the place”.

He also said that Aylmer was not a “criminal mastermind” having twice travelled to Leeds in the UK by ferry using his own car and under his own name to purchase the devices, which gardaí were later able to track back to him.

The accused’s fingerprint was found in the home of an accomplice on an instruction leaflet that could be linked to the tracking devices by a unique serial number. The judge said there was a “lack of criminal sophistication” in what he had done, adding: “Booking things in your own name is a bit of a schoolboy error, I would have thought.”

Aylmer (35), with an address at Casino Park, Marino, Dublin 3, pleaded guilty to participating in, or contributing to the murder of Christopher (aka Noel) Kirwan between October 20th, 2016 and December 22nd, 2016 with the knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation.

He has also pleaded guilty to participation in the plan to murder James ‘Mago’ Gately between September 7th, 2016 and April 6th, 2017. Both offences are contrary to section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.

In 2018 Aylmer was sentenced to a little under four years after he pleaded guilty to buying mobile phones for the gang who murdered Mr Barr on April 25th, 2016. His sentence was later increased to six years by the Court of Appeal in a judgment that laid down the principles for sentencing people convicted of participating in offences carried out by criminal organisations.

Mr Justice Hunt said he would pass sentence on July 29th.