Cocaine Wars (5 page)

W
HEN
R
ATTIGAN SPOTTED
someone he knew, twenty-one-year-old trainee soldier John Malone, he rolled down the car window and had a brief conversation with him. Several witnesses saw this exchange take place, and later told Gardaí about it. While Rattigan was having the conversation with Malone, Declan Gavin was standing outside Abrakebabra chatting to a young woman. The woman heard someone shouting ‘rats'. She looked and saw that they were shouting out the window of the parked car. Because she thought that the insults were levelled at her, she said: ‘What are ye saying?' Then someone in the car replied: ‘What are you looking at, slapper?' Other witnesses also described hearing the word ‘rat' being shouted along with ‘There he is.'

When Rattigan spotted Gavin, he pulled on a balaclava to cover his face and pulled a knife out of his pocket. Then he jumped out of the car and ran towards Gavin, who was taken by surprise. Gavin was standing in the middle of a fairly large group of people; many of them saw Rattigan run towards him and they quickly scattered. Brian Rattigan stabbed Gavin once in the middle of the chest. Although the knife attack had inflicted a very serious injury, Gavin was aware enough to realise that he had to get away from his attacker. Despite his injury, he managed to run into Abrakebabra. A security guard held the door closed behind him preventing Rattigan from getting inside.

Joey Redmond, Shane Maloney and John Roche stayed in or around the Micra during the stabbing incident, which was over in less than two minutes. According to witness accounts, Rattigan spent a few seconds trying to pull the door open, but he was drawing attention to himself and was seen by at least a dozen witnesses. However, it wasn't obvious who he was to some onlookers, because he was wearing the balaclava. Rattigan gave up and ran. As he was on his way back to the car, Mark Skerritt got hold of a golf club from the back of his car and chased him. Witnesses differed on whether or not Skerritt managed to strike him with the golf club, but he certainly lashed out at him. When Rattigan got inside the car, Skerritt turned his attention to Maloney's Micra and smashed it over the bonnet, breaking the golf club in two. With that the Micra sped off into the night. A number of witnesses later described the voice of a female shouting, ‘It's the Rattigans', as the car left the scene.

Back in Abrakebabra, Declan Gavin staggered from the front door and collapsed in the small kitchen area. Several people in the restaurant tried to help him. A woman who was in the restaurant ran to help; she applied pressure to Gavin's knife wound in a bid to stop the bleeding. She also performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, when it became clear that the injured man was on the brink of death. Darren Geoghegan and Patrick Doyle had arrived just after the stabbing; they were also in the kitchen trying to pull Gavin back from the brink. Somebody said that an ambulance had been called, so the group tried to keep Gavin alive until the medical experts arrived.

On the morning of 25 August 2001, Garda David Pidgeon was on duty at the public area of Sundrive Road Garda Station. A security guard from Abrakebabra ran into the station in a distressed state. He said that a man had just been stabbed in the ‘chipper'. Garda Pidgeon immediately circulated this information over the Garda radio system to all squad cars on duty in the area. Gardaí Thomas Lynch and Michael Redmond were in their patrol car when they heard the message and rushed to the scene. They were soon joined by Garda Pidgeon and Gardaí Sean O'Sullivan, Colm Quinn and Brian Clerkin. When the officers arrived at the premises, they noted that a man was lying in the back of the kitchen area. He was alive but unconscious and was bleeding from a large stab wound to the chest. Four people were around him administering first aid, including well-known criminals Patrick Doyle and Darren Geoghegan.

Shortly before 4.00 a.m. an ambulance crew – Brendan Walsh and Mick O'Reilly – arrived at the scene and assessed the injured Declan Gavin. It was obvious that the injuries were severe, and it was decided that Gavin should be immediately transported to hospital. The ambulance rushed to St James's Hospital, which is less than a five-minute drive from Crumlin village. Gardaí Colm Quinn and David Pidgeon followed behind the ambulance in a patrol car, while the other officers at the scene preserved it for investigation, and identified and took the names of as many people at the scene as was possible. It was clear that witnesses would be needed for a possible future court case. Darren Geoghegan also followed the ambulance in his car to see what condition his friend was in.

At St James's Hospital the ambulance crew handed Declan Gavin over to the care of the hospital staff. Geoghegan had phoned Declan Gavin's mother, Pauline, while he was following the ambulance, so she knew what was happening almost immediately. Pauline Gavin soon arrived at the hospital with her other son, Aidan, and her daughter. The news was not good, and following surgery and attempted resuscitation in an operating theatre, the doctor pronounced Declan Gavin dead. Gavin had died from a single stab wound to the heart. That morning Pauline Gavin did what no parent ever expects to do – she formally identified her son's body. Gavin's sister was present with her when she confirmed to Garda Marion Keane that it was Declan Gavin's body.

State Pathologist Dr John Harbison conducted a postmortem on Gavin's remains that afternoon. During the two-hour examination, Dr Harbison found that the principal injury, to an otherwise healthy body, was a stab wound on the right side of the chest, around two and a half inches long. The fatal injury was caused by a knife being thrust through cartilage into the right atrial appendage of the heart, causing bleeding, which in turn caused the right lung to collapse and the left lung to partially collapse. A second superficial injury was observed on the radical side of the right index finger, which Dr Harbison felt could be construed as a defensive wound, while Gavin was trying to fend off his attacker. A toxicology report showed a urinary alcohol level of 227 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, which meant that Declan Gavin had drunk around ten pints. The report showed no traces of drugs.

In the immediate aftermath of Declan Gavin's stabbing, an incident room was set up in Sundrive Road Garda Station under the leadership of Chief Superintendent Noel Smith. Local Superintendents John Manley and Detective Superintendent Denis Donegan headed the investigation, and Detective Inspector Dominic Hayes of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NCBI) was also a key figure. Detective Inspector Tom Mulligan from Crumlin Garda Station was the day-to-day officer in charge of the murder inquiry. Over fifty officers were assigned to the murder on a full-time basis. Detective Gardaí John Doggett, Eamon O'Loughlin and Garda Katherina Joyce manned the incident room.

At first light a major forensic investigation got underway at Abrakebabra, conducted by a four-person team from the Garda Technical Bureau at Garda Headquarters. Detective Garda Seamus Quinn from the Ballistics Section examined the scene, and found blood in various places. Detective Garda Christopher O'Connor from the Fingerprints Section discovered a visible finger and palm mark in what appeared to be blood on the front window of the restaurant, 2" to the left of the door and 62" from the base of the window.

Detective Garda Caroline Hughes from the Photography Section took photos of what would later be a key piece of evidence. The palm mark taken from the window was compared to Brian Rattigan's palm and fingerprints, which were on record from when he had been previously arrested, and it was concluded that the palm mark was made from Rattigan's left palm. Later, DNA analysis of the blood next to Rattigan's finger mark was examined. It matched Declan Gavin's DNA. No blood was taken from the finger mark, as Bureau personnel decided not to distort the finger mark characteristics, so that adequate comparative features would remain intact. This turned out to be a pivotal development and would later prove to be a crucial decision.

It is believed that Brian Rattigan disposed of the murder weapon, his clothes and balaclava after leaving Abrakebabra. The movements of the four men in the Micra cannot be accounted for until they arrived back to the Kavanaghs' house, ninety or so minutes later. Karl Kavanagh, Catherine Kavanagh, Ritchie Rattigan, Joey Rattigan, Mark O'Reilly and Greg Bourke were still in the house when the four men returned. John Roche, Joey and Brian Rattigan discussed Declan Gavin's stabbing while they continued to drink. A radio bulletin came on at 7.00 a.m. – broadcasting news of a stabbing at Abrakebabra in Crumlin. Some of those present laughed and cheered at the news. After a while, Brian Rattigan told Shane Maloney to ‘get rid' of the car in order to eliminate any forensic evidence. According to a statement later given to Gardaí, Maloney drove the Micra to the Texaco garage at the Cranley Centre on the Naas Road with another man. The other man bought a bottle of orange, emptied it and filled it with petrol. The car was then driven to Cookstown Industrial Estate, where it was partially burnt out. Shane Maloney then received a phone call from Brian Rattigan warning him not to get a taxi back to Cooley Road.

The party at the Kavanaghs' broke up shortly afterwards, and the four men went into hiding anticipating that they would all be arrested. They were correct. They were all wanted men.

At around 8.30 a.m. on the morning of Saturday 25 August 2001, a woman was walking through the field at the back of Cookstown Industrial Estate in Tallaght. She noticed smoke and saw a car on fire. A call was made to the fire brigade. She didn't see anybody else around the car, which she described as a small, three-door vehicle. The car was on fire on the side of the road directly outside Paramount Freight. The Dublin Fire Brigade arrived and extinguished the blaze. When the flames were put out, it emerged that the car was a Nissan Micra, registration 93 D 38843. Gardaí arrived at the industrial estate at around 10.30 a.m., and Detective Garda Tony Tighe and Garda Gavin Ross preserved the scene. They were sure that the burnt-out car had something to do with the murder the night before. The vehicle was taken to a secure storage facility at Santry Garda Station that afternoon. The remains of burnt clothing and footwear were found in the boot. Two unidentified palm prints were taken from the front wing of the driver's side of the car.

Just hours after the killing, Gardaí had interviewed several witnesses. They knew that four men had been at the scene when the murder occurred, and that the men had left in a car. Officers quickly learned from confidential informants and other sources that these men were Brian Rattigan, Shane Maloney, Joey Redmond and John Roche. The main focus of the investigation switched to investigating the movements of the four men on the night of the murder. The fact that Shane Maloney's Nissan Micra had been burnt out was a further indication that the men had something to do with Declan Gavin's murder. After preliminary investigations, Gardaí learned of Joey Rattigan's eighteenth birthday party, and also knew about the gathering in Karl Kavanagh's house after the party.

As the Garda investigation kicked into full gear, various detectives were assigned the jobs of interviewing witnesses and potential witnesses who had seen Declan Gavin in and around the time of his murder. These witnesses included staff and customers at Abrakebabra and the nearby Texas Fried Chicken. A video recording of the front entrance to Abrakebabra was seized from a security camera, and although it did not cover the roadway where Shane Maloney's car pulled up, or the location of the actual stabbing, it was very useful in identifying people at the scene at the time. The camera footage had a second-counter and did capture Declan Gavin staggering and being chased by another man, who is wearing a balaclava and appears to have a large object in his hand. Witnesses were shown stills of the footage, and several identified themselves and others from these stills. Some witnesses also confirmed that Declan Gavin was not injured or bleeding prior to his encounter with the knife-man.

A
LTHOUGH SOME PEOPLE
were co-operating with Gardaí in giving statements about what they had seen, it soon became apparent that investigators were receiving less than full cooperation from some very important witnesses at the scene. Discrepancies in statements, off-the-record comments and recorded and unsigned memos indicated that several witnesses knew the identities of the culprits, but were not prepared to name them for fear of retribution. This lived up to the Crumlin and Drimnagh tradition of not co-operating with the law at any cost. Because of this reluctance to co-operate, twenty-two people were arrested during the course of the murder investigation, mainly for withholding information.

Gardaí knew there were several reasons why they were not receiving full co-operation. One of the main reasons was that many people had a lot of animosity towards the police and the criminal justice system in general, and as a result were openly hostile and unco-operative. Some individuals just did not want to co-operate with a force that they had been taught to despise. Certain other people who witnessed the stabbing were involved in criminality. These ranged from petty criminals to members of the Gavin gang, who were involved in the wholesale supply of illegal drugs. Witnesses Darren Geoghegan and Paddy Doyle certainly fitted into this category. Other, more innocent, witnesses understandably feared helping to identify men who were involved in a dispute between two violent rival criminal gangs. But Gardaí found that over the course of the investigation, the prevailing notion among many of the potential witnesses was that the naming of any individual to the Gardaí, regardless of the seriousness of the crime involved and the fact that a man had lost his life, would lead to the person being labelled a ‘rat'. Gardaí eventually divided the witnesses to events before, during and after the murder into two distinct groups – ‘independent' and ‘other'.

The ‘independent' witnesses were classed as normal witnesses to events surrounding the death of Declan Gavin. They gave full and detailed statements with largely accurate descriptions, and were regarded by Gardaí as being without prejudice, malicious intent or fear of intimidation. Most of these people had no previous criminal convictions and were not involved in the feud. Unfortunately, this often meant that because of their nature of abiding by the law, they were often unable to identify the key players involved in the murder.

The ‘other' witnesses were mostly friends and associates of Declan Gavin or other people who were aware of the identities of those involved in the murder, but for one reason or another did not fully co-operate with Gardaí. Many of these ‘other' witnesses were regarded as unlikely to give evidence in any future court proceedings. Many of them eventually identified the culprits to Gardaí, but it was usually after they were arrested, or when they were speaking off the record. Often when they spoke to Gardaí, they refused to sign their interview notes – meaning the evidence gathered was not admissible in court and was severely compromised.

Of the independent witnesses present, many gave detailed statements that helped Gardaí to build up a picture of what happened. A security guard said he saw four men in a ‘silver Nissan small two-door car' pull up outside the premises. He then saw the front-seat passenger put on a black balaclava and get out of the car with a knife in his hand. ‘Before he [Declan Gavin] got a chance to do anything, the man with the knife lashed out at him.' He then described how Gavin initially struggled to get into Abrakebabra, and also described how a man with a golf club chased the knife-man after the stabbing occurred, while others threw missiles at the escaping Nissan car.

None of the Abrakebabra staff were able to help Gardaí to identify the killer, because he had been wearing a balaclava. Another witness described how he saw the silver Nissan pull up, and heard the front-seat passenger shout ‘rat' at a man standing in a crowd. The passenger, who was wearing a balaclava, then jumped out while carrying a knife in his right hand. He stabbed the man he had called a ‘rat' seconds earlier, and the knife made contact with him somewhere in the chest area. He saw the injured man run into Abrakebabra, leaving a trail of blood behind him, while the knife-man followed him. He then said that the knife-man was unable to get into the restaurant. He also described how a bystander attacked the Nissan with a golf club, and he was of the opinion that several of the bystanders knew the identity of the attacker, although he did not.

David Byrne, who was Declan Gavin's close friend and a member of his gang, gave a statement to Gardaí in which he detailed how he was in the area around Crumlin Shopping Centre with four friends. The group arrived at Abrakebabra at around 3.20 a.m., and he had a short conversation with Declan Gavin. Shortly after this, he turned and saw Gavin being chased into Abrakebabra by a man with a balaclava who was carrying a silver knife. When the knife-man was unable to get into the ‘chipper', he kicked the door and then turned and went towards the parked Nissan. Byrne then ran into Abrakebabra to see if Gavin was all right. He was later able to identify himself from CCTV stills shown to him by Gardaí.

Mark Skerritt and three of his friends had spent the night of the murder in the Vatican nightclub in Harcourt Street. Then one of them drove the group of four to Abrakebabra at about 3.00 a.m. Skerritt was involved on the periphery of the row that Declan Gavin had broken up, although there were no cross words exchanged between the two men. Skerritt was around Abrakebabra when the Nissan Micra pulled up, and he heard the front-seat passenger shout out: ‘Deco, ye rat. You're dead.' He then saw the passenger pull on a balaclava and get out of the car with a ‘big butcher's knife' in his hand. Skerritt later told Gardaí that a passenger in the back of the Micra pointed out Declan Gavin to the knife-man, saying: ‘There he is over there', before saying, ‘Get the rat.' Skerritt remembered the knife-man approaching Gavin and saying: ‘Deco, it's me', or, ‘Deco, do you remember me?' before stabbing him in the chest. Mark Skerritt was close by his friend's car when the assault occurred; he went to the boot and got a golf club. He then chased the knife-man, who by now was running back to the Micra. Skerritt then swung at the knifeman, hitting him on the back. The knife-man managed to get into the getaway car, and Skerritt hit the car with the golf club, before the vehicle left the scene. Mark Skerritt stated that he knew who the knife-man was, but he was not prepared to identify him, for fear of a revenge attack being carried out on him.

Detectives interviewed Declan Gavin's friend Eamon Daly, and he told them about Gavin's movements on the night of the murder. After the twenty-first birthday party in the Transport Club, they headed into town but then separated, with each going to a different nightclub. They arranged to meet up again at Abrakebabra. Before the stabbing incident, Daly saw Gavin outside ‘kissing a bird', but she had left the scene before the Nissan Micra arrived.

Daly remembered a car pulling up outside Abrakebabra with at least three people in it. He said that a man got out of the front passenger door wearing a balaclava and carrying a knife. ‘He was roaring and shouting like he was psyching himself up' was how Daly described him. After the stabbing occurred, Andrew Murray gave Daly a lift to nearby Dolphin's Barn Fire Station to get an ambulance. While they were on the way to the station, they were pulled over by Gardaí. The Gardaí had heard about the murder and thought that the pair speeding down the road might have been escaping the murder scene. They soon discovered that Daly and Murray were simply trying to get help for their dying friend.

Gardaí eventually found out that the man who carried out the murder had been talking to John Malone before the incident, but they did not know this when they interviewed the twenty-one-year-old in the hours after of the killing. Malone was undergoing basic training at Cathal Brugha army barracks. He was living in Saggart but was originally from Drimnagh. He made a statement describing how he and a group of friends arrived at Abrakebabra after 3.00 a.m., where they saw Declan Gavin ‘talking to a girl'. They were at the steps outside the Irish Permanent, which was next door to the restaurant. He said he saw a ‘silvery coloured Micra', and that the driver of the car ‘said something to me'. He then observed a man in the front passenger seat wearing a balaclava and carrying a knife, while there were ‘two or three in the back. I didn't get a good look at them.' Malone then stated that the knife-man chased Declan Gavin to Abrakebabra, before pushing the door open enough to get his arm in and swing at Gavin with the knife.

On 29 August, Malone was interviewed again but was not detained. He elaborated on his first statement, saying he ‘knew two or three people in the car', and said a number of those in the car were saying: ‘Where is he? Where is he?' ‘I knew these people were looking for Declan Gavin as they had been fighting with him for years.' He stated that he knew the knife-man, the driver and one of the rear-seat passengers, but he refused to name them and said, ‘I am afraid for my family's lives, that they would be in danger.'

When interviewed by Gardaí on the morning after the murder, Justin Beatty, from Tallaght, said that he had taken ecstasy and three or four lines of cocaine at the Castle nightclub in Finglas, so he was ‘off his head' when he arrived with his mates at Abrakebabra. He said he did not see the stabbing because he had been relieving himself at the time, but heard screaming and a woman saying: ‘He has a knife', and saw people running. After that he saw the Nissan Micra speed away from the scene, and he ran into the restaurant to see what had happened. He could not get into the kitchen because the manager closed the door on him. He kicked in the door and saw Declan Gavin lying injured on the ground.

Andrew Murray, a soldier in the Irish Army, was at the Castle nightclub in Finglas with Justin Beatty and three other friends. He initially told Gardaí that he witnessed John Malone talking to the occupants of the Nissan Micra before the knife-man got out. ‘I saw this guy stab Declan Gavin with the knife. This stabbing happened on the steps leading down to Abrakebabra.' He stated that he and John Malone discussed the stabbing on their way home, and the culprits mentioned were Joey Redmond and Rattigan. He would not put this in his statement, as he was afraid of retribution. In a further statement, three days after the murder, he went on to say that when the Micra arrived, ‘A tall fella who I think was Joey Redmond got out of this Nissan Micra. I know Joey Redmond to see and I know he is friendly with the Rattigans.' In two unsigned memorandums of interview, Andrew Murray said that he recognised three of the people involved in the stabbing, but did not want to name them because he was ‘not a rat'. He then went on to name Brian Rattigan, Joey Redmond and Shane Maloney. He said that Brian Rattigan stabbed Gavin, but he would not sign anything with the names of the three men on it because he was afraid.

Several witnesses described the girl who spoke to Gavin just seconds before the murder as having spoken to the occupants of the Micra just before the stabbing. In her original interview on the day after the murder, she recalled chatting to Declan Gavin at the restaurant. She described the Micra pulling up and a passenger shouting ‘rats' out the window. ‘I said: “What are ye saying?” as I walked by', she confirmed. She didn't see the actual stabbing but did see Mark Skerritt chase the knife-man with a golf club. She later said that Skerritt had given her the handle of the broken golf club, which she threw away.

Darren Geoghegan and Patrick Doyle were good friends and criminal associates of Declan Gavin. They both arrived at Abrakebabra just after the stabbing and did not witness anything at all. When they heard that their mate had been stabbed and was in a bad way, they rushed into the restaurant. They saw Gavin lying on the kitchen floor, surrounded by two women who were giving him first aid. Geoghegan initially refused to co-operate with Gardaí and give a statement. He was later interviewed in Cloverhill Prison after being sent there on remand for a road traffic offence, and then again at Sundrive Road Garda Station, after he was taken out of prison for questioning. He remembered arriving at the scene just before the Gardaí. He followed the ambulance in his car to St James's Hospital, and rang Gavin's mother, Pauline, to tell her what had happened. It was Pauline Gavin who later told Geoghegan that her son had passed away.

Patrick Doyle was interviewed at Ronanstown Garda Station after being arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act for possession of a firearm. During his interview, Doyle confirmed that it was his belief that Brian Rattigan was behind the stabbing. He also volunteered to Gardaí that Shane Maloney was around when it happened. Doyle did point out that he was not there, though, and everything he had heard was second-hand from different people.

After interviewing the known witnesses at at Abrakebabra, Gardaí had built up a detailed picture of what had happened there, but they knew that some people had not told half of what they knew. So it was decided that those people would be arrested at later dates.

After finding Brian Rattigan's finger and palm print on the door of Abrakebabra, Gardaí had enough to arrest him and question him about the murder. On 28 August, Detective Sergeant Joe O'Hara and other Gardaí called to Rattigan's home on Cooley Road looking for him. He had been staying at a safe house since the murder, and was not at home when Gardaí searched the house to see if they could find anything to link him to the murder. Gardaí received information that he would be attending Dublin District Court on 4 September 2001. So two officers waited there to arrest him. When Rattigan saw uniformed Garda Paul Lynch and another member, he fled on foot. Sharon Rattigan and Shay O'Byrne were with Rattigan and physically blocked the Gardaí from arresting him. The pair were then arrested and charged with obstruction under Section 19 of the Public Order Act. Later that day Gardaí received information that Brian Rattigan was drinking in a pub on James's Street in Dublin 8. Joe O'Hara arrested Rattigan on suspicion of Declan Gavin's murder, and he was taken to Sundrive Road Garda Station, where he was photographed and fingerprinted.