A 35-year-old gang member has been jailed for eight years and four months for helping the Kinahan organised crime group to murder one man and attempt to murder another as part of the ongoing Hutch/Kinahan feud.
Martin Aylmer, from Casino Park in Marino in Dublin, pleaded guilty to participating in the murder of Noel Kirwan in 2016 and the attempted murder of James 'Mago' Gately in 2017.
Gately was a rival Hutch gang member.
Mr Kirwan was an innocent man who was shot dead because he happened to be photographed at a funeral with another man.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the sentence should serve as another lesson "in the perils of becoming involved in this organisation."Aylmer, he said, could not say he did not know what the Kinahan organised crime group was doing as he had helped them with a previous murder.
Aylmer is already serving a six year prison sentence after he admitted buying mobile phones for the Kinahan organised crime group who murdered Michael Barr at the Sunset House pub in Dublin in April 2016.
He was jailed this morning for his role in two other feud related crimes, the murder of Mr Kirwan and the attempted murder of Gately.
Aylmer imported three tracking devices used in the shootings, but made what was called "the schoolboy error" of using his own name and car to bring them from Leeds in the UK to his apartment in Dublin.
The Kinahan gang operated a cellular structure to carry out the shootings, bringing in Estonian hitman Imre Arakas to shoot Gately.
Those at the top were directing and organising, Aylmer was at the bottom. Gardaí agreed he was "the lowest of anyone involved in that cellular structure".
While Gately survived the attempted murder, Mr Kirwan, who had absolutely no involvement in crime, was shot dead outside his home three days before Christmas in 2016 .
The Kinahan gang apparently targeted Mr Kirwan simply because he happened to be photographed in the company of a childhood friend, at the funeral of feud victim Eddie Hutch.
The court found this "disturbing."
Mr Justice Hunt said it was implicit that Aylmer was "a trusted and reliable source of assistance" for the Kinahan organised crime group.
"He may not have been at the higher echelons but his assistance was important if not essential".
The court sentenced Aylmer to 10 years and four months, with the last two years suspended.
Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau described today's convictions as significant.
He said Aylmer was a trusted enabler, "without whose support and assistance, a violent criminal organisation could not operate a campaign of murder and violence, which impacted immensely on families and local communities".
"I can confirm that investigators are still actively engaged in gathering evidence with the aim of prosecuting other persons identified and suspected of being involved in these violent crimes," Mr Gallagher said.
