Man jailed for life for ‘cold and callous’ murder of Michael Barr

A car thief has been jailed for life by the non-jury Special Criminal Court for the murder of the manager of the Sunset House pub in central Dublin by the Kinahan cartel.

Liverpool native David Hunter (42), with an address at Du Cane Road, White City, London, had denied murdering Michael Barr (35) at the pub in Dublin’s north inner city on the night of April 25th, 2016.

Hunter is the second man to be found guilty of murdering Mr Barr, a dissident republican. Eamonn Cumberton (32), of Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7, was convicted of murdering the Tyrone native in January 2018.

The court found there was compelling evidence that Hunter was one of the two gunmen who entered the pub on Summerhill and shot Mr Barr.

In a victim-impact statement read by prosecution barrister Mr Dominic McGinn SC, Mr Barr’s former partner Jade O’Shea, who has a child with the deceased, said their six year-old daughter constantly asks for her father and that since the night he was killed their lives have been turned upside down.

Mr Barr’s sister Noeleen said in her statement that her brother was “brutally taken” from his five children and wider family.

‘Nightmare’

She said that after learning of Mr Barr’s death on social media she was “found in pieces” on the floor and described his death as a “nightmare” for the family and his children.

“How can you measure a life in drugs or money?” she asked.

She said the family had been through “mental torture” and described her brother as a talented sportsman, a family man and a gentleman.

Delivering sentence, Mr Justice Alexander Owens, presiding, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge David McHugh, backdated Hunter’s life-sentence to April 2019, when he was first arrested on a European Arrest Warrant.

Speaking outside court, Det Supt Colm Murphy said that the shooting of Mr Barr was a “cold and callous” murder. He extended his sympathies to the Barr family and said that the garda investigation into the murder was ongoing.