Senior Kinahan cartel figure Sean McGovern (40) has apologised to his victims for the pain his actions caused them.
Speaking at the Special Criminal Court, McGovern’s barrister said the Dubliner wanted to apologise to “all those impacted, harmed or hurt as a consequence of his actions”.
Michael Bowman said he had been “expressly instructed” by his client to issue that apology, which came on Friday at his sentencing hearing, after McGovern pleaded guilty to two charges of directing Kinahan cartel murder conspiracies.
One of the crimes McGovern directed was the December 2016 murder of Noel Kirwan, a 62-year-old grandfather who was regarded as a “soft target”. He was selected to be shot dead because he was a friend of the Hutch family, had been photographed at a Hutch family funeral earlier that year and was easy to kill, the court was told.
READ MORE
After evidence and submissions were concluded, the case was adjourned until June 8th, when McGovern’s sentence will be imposed. The charge of directing a criminal organisation carries a potential sanction of up to life imprisonment.
A number of testimonials, or references, were also submitted to the court on behalf of McGovern, a father of two young girls. All the testimonials were from his family members.
Bowman said McGovern’s mother spoke in her testimonial of her son as someone who was “very much involved in the soccer scene” when he was younger and who was “proficiently talented”. She also said her son had been very close to his late father, who used to bring him to all of his games.
McGovern’s partner said his current circumstances had been difficult for their family, causing turmoil. She described him as a “committed father”. Another testimonial described him as a “loving, generous father”.
However, Bowman stressed McGovern’s partner understood “they are not the victims in the case”, and that murdered grandfather Kirwan and his family were the victims. He added the matters for which McGovern was before the court did not “reflect the entirety of the individual”.
His client had been in custody since his arrest in Dubai in October 2024, when he was kept in “onerous” prison conditions, as a foreigner in that prison population. He has been in custody in Ireland since last May, when he was extradited from United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He had been an enhanced, or trusted, prisoner since last August – which means he has not come to the attention of prison staff, and enjoys some special privileges as a result.
Bowman added McGovern would be “reintroduced into the community as a father, as a partner, as a son” and he asked the three judges to structure their sentence with that in mind.
With a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12, McGovern pleaded guilty in March to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 20th and December 22nd, 2016, in relation to the murder of Kirwan.
He also admitted directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 17th, 2015, and April 6th, 2017, in connection with the surveillance of Hutch family associate James “Mago” Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence.
Judge Patrick McGrath has already agreed that whatever sentence is imposed on McGovern, he is entitled to a 25 per cent reduction, based on sentencing norms. This is because of his relatively early guilty pleas, which spared the State a lengthy and costly trial.
In submissions related to the length of sentence to be handed down, Bowman said his client was seeking for the time he had already spent in custody to be taken into account.
McGovern was also seeking “extra credit” for the time spent in jail in UAE – almost eight months – meaning he would be credited with already having served those eight months and a little more, to reflect the difficult prison conditions there.
However, Dominic McGinn, for the prosecution, pointed out that McGovern had fought his extradition to Ireland after his arrest in Dubai. His decision to do that had ensured he prolonged his period in custody there.
Bowman pointed to the fact when, in 2001, Michael McKevitt was charged with directing a terrorist group, the Real IRA, and also of membership of an illegal organisation, he had fought the case, resulting in a trial that was “extraordinary” in length and complexity.
Bowman pointed out that McKevitt had also challenged the State’s prosecution of him, in numerous processes, up to the Supreme Court. Yet his sentence for his crimes was 20 years.
Bowman said the evidence did not bear out that his client planned either the murder of Kirwan or the failed conspiracy to murder Gately. 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 McGovern had any involvement in identifying the targets, planning the intended murders or procuring firearms, vehicles or communication equipment.
Furthermore, those higher up than McGovern in the organisation had enlisted people for those purposes, and the operation was planned to ensure individual cells did not know who they were communicating with.
At Monday’s hearing, when the sentencing began, the court was shown messages on a supposedly secure and impenetrable messaging system that McGovern and other cartel members were using to communicate between 2015 and 2017.
The messages involved discussing who the cartel could murder as part of the feud and also detailed arrangements for and research on the murder of Kirwan and numerous efforts to kill Gately, which were not successful.
