Sean McGovern has pleaded guilty to two charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation.
Senior figures of the Kinahan gang expressed paranoia after the arrest of a man hired to carry out an “assassination”, an Irish court has heard.
Encrypted communications found on mobile devices used by people involved in the plot exposed senior gang members’ fears over tracking devices being traced back to them and being “paro” over someone communicating information to the Irish police service An Garda Siochana.
This formed part of the evidence against Sean McGovern, 40, in a sentencing hearing at Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday.
McGovern has pleaded guilty to two charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation relating to the deadly Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud in Ireland, in which he himself was shot.
The charges relate to his involvement in the lead-up to the murder of Noel Kirwan, a grandfather who was shot dead in December 2016, and the targeting and monitoring of James Gately with a view to having him shot dead.
The shooting of James Gately did not happen after a hitman hired from Estonia was arrested after he arrived in Ireland.
The Hutch-Kinahan feud dates back to 2014 and escalated following the 2016 Regency Hotel shooting in which David Byrne was murdered and McGovern was shot.
During Monday’s hearings, Noel Kirwan’s daughter, Donna, described McGovern as “stupid” as her victim-impact statement was read to the court.
Detective Sergeant Dolan Daly told the court that there was no evidence that Mr Kirwan was involved in any criminality and had been targeted over a perceived connection to the Hutch OCG as he had been photographed at a funeral of a Hutch family member.
Speaking about McGovern and his injuries from an earlier shooting, which escalated the bitter Hutch-Kinahan feud, she said: “You were shot yourself in the Regency Hotel, you would have seen the fear and panic in your own family that day.
“Why would you chose to inflict that pain on us – it was Christmas.”
McGovern, a father of two, looked at the floor for much of the victim impact statement.
She continued: “You should have been out shopping for your own kids, not planning the murder of a 62-year-old grandfather.”
Det Sgt Daly gave evidence on McGovern’s role in the lead-up to the murder, linking him to activity through evidence relating to a tracker on Mr Kirwan’s car and mobile phone calls around the time of the shooting.
Earlier, the non-jury, three-judge court heard McGovern was also involved in surveilling an “active target for assassination” in the “murderous feud”.
Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher, from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, said the Kinahan OCG and the Hutch OCG had previously worked together as one criminal network before a “falling out” in 2014.
He explained there had been the shooting of an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity in 2014.
He said this was followed by the shooting of Gary Hutch, a senior member in the OCG, in Spain in 2015 as he was believed by the Kinahan gang to have been involved in the earlier shooting.
Gately was among those who carried Mr Hutch’s coffin at his funeral and was an “active target for assassination” by the Kinahan OCG since 2015.
The feud escalated further with the Regency Hotel shooting, with the Kinahan OCG believing Gately was one of the gunmen who had disguised themselves as armed gardai.
The court heard his movements in Dublin and Belfast had been catalogued by the Kinahan OCG through GPS trackers they placed on his car.
Alongside CCTV evidence, surveillance, and data taken from trackers on vehicles, gardai were also able to uncover messages on Blackberry phones reconfigured by the Kinahan OCG to use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) email encryption software.
The encrypted messages show that the gang members used nicknames, with McGovern identified as “Knife” and Gately referred to as “Mago”.
The evidence also included communications with other senior figures in the Kinahan OCG, some with nicknames relating to “Cap” or “Bon”.
Two days after the Regency shooting, Cap messaged McGovern to say “it could have been six of us” and “could have wiped out” a “whole bloodline”.
McGovern told Cap: “They wanted you.”
Mr Gallagher said encrypted messages also showed the two discussing possible targets in the Hutch family as well as Gately, and McGovern stating: “On my baby’s life, I’m not stopping.”
He also told the court that McGovern had shared what he called “fresh pics” of Gately, his partner and children, to another man in the gang as they were also tracking his partner at one stage.
Mr Gallagher also told the court that gardai became aware that Imre Arakas, an Estonian hitman for hire, was arriving into Ireland in April 2017 and was arrested.
He was found with one of the Blackberry phones with the PGP software and a piece of paper containing information on Gately and the apartments in which he was staying in Belfast as well as some PGP account information of Kinahan gang members – including “Bon new”.
In one message, Arakas stated that it “seems possible to take him down when he comes out of car” but raised concerned there was “nowhere to hide”.
He said a silencer “would be good” and said: “It could just be one shot from the head from distance and that’s it.”
Arakas was arrested by gardai and the PSNI were notified, leading to the GPS tracker being recovered from Gately’s car.
Mr Gallagher read from transcripts of messages between Bon and McGovern following the arrests.
At one point, Bon said: “They know, I reckon. Okay mate, I’m going offline.”
McGovern also advised an associate: “I’d get out of there if I was you.”
Bon sent a mail stating that “old bill know and they’re playing with us”, adding: “Just forget it, cut it off”.
Bon also asked McGovern if gloves were worn when the tracker was placed.
He later questioned how quickly gardai could trace the trackers but added: “Maybe just paro.”
McGovern admitted to being “mad paro” while Bon suggested that “someone told old bill about it all”.
Bon later told McGovern: “We have to change tactics mate.”
McGovern replied: “100% or we’re all going to go to jail with stich-ups mate.”
Bon stated he had a “new plan” and told McGovern not to worry, later saying, “I will get Mago within two to four weeks.”
McGovern was extradited from the UAE after an Interpol red notice was issued in October 2024.
He entered a plea of guilty to both offences on March 16 2026.
Under questioning from McGovern’s barrister, Michael Bowman SC, Mr Gallagher told the court that pseudonyms were being used for some people for “operational reasons”.
The sentencing hearing will continue on Friday.
