A British gunman who came to Dublin four-and-a-half years ago to kill the dissident republican Michael Barr, one of the victims of the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
David Hunter, with an address at Du Cane Road, White City, London, was one of two gunmen wearing masks who shot dead the 35-year-old in the Sunset House pub in Dublin's north Inner city on 25 April 2016.
In a victim impact statement, Michael's sister Noeleen said the father of five had been "gunned down by the orders of others" who were "paying fools to kill human beings".
She also said the family heard about his murder on social media, which she described as "disturbing" and "immoral" and marked the start of "a living nightmare".
Two armed men, "wearing boiler suits and full rubber masks" went into the the bar and shot Mr Barr seven times, five times in the head, once in the leg and once in the shoulder.
The getaway car, a silver Audi A6 arrived at Walsh Road in Drumcondra at 9.20pm and three men got out, set the car alight, got in to a "possibly silver" Ford Mondeo and left the scene.
Gardaí arrived and extinguished the fire and discovered four guns, including the murder weapon, boiler suits, ski masks and rubber masks in the back seat.
They also found a 'burner' phone, which had a number of missed calls, next to a bullet on the grass nearby.
Hunter's DNA was found on two masks, a ski mask and a latex mask discovered in the partially burned out getaway car after the murder.
He had claimed he came to Ireland from Liverpool on the ferry two days earlier to see a UB40 concert, but it had already taken place.
The 42-year-old also claimed he had left a ski mask with his DNA in the getaway car two months earlier when he came to Ireland in February of that year to steal a car.
However, he could not explain why his DNA was found on the latex mask, which the court found he was wearing on the night of the murder.
Hunter also received a phone call an hour after the murder from one of the four phones used on the night.
He told gardaí that he had taken a call that night from a man looking to buy his red BMW car, which he brought to Ireland and was selling.
The Special Criminal Court found this to be "unbelievable and untrue".
It found it more likely that when the gang could not get Hunter on the dropped burner phone after the murder that night they called him on his personal UK mobile.
Hunter admitted that he bought a new phone in Holyhead before he boarded the ferry for Dublin, two days before the killing.
He said that after the murder he sold his car so he could get to Spain to enroll in a residential rehab programme.
However, he spent half the value of the car on two plane tickets to Malaga, including one in the name of Tom Wood, which was never used.
The court did not accept that his trip to Dublin was for "one last fling" before rehab, but found this suspicious activity did not add up to proof of murder.
Mr Justice Alex Owens today imposed on Hunter the mandatory term of life in prison, saying it was the only sentence open to the court.
