Kinahan gangster ‘Fat’ Freddie sentenced to life in jail for murder
Facts of ‘execution’ proven ‘beyond reasonable doubt’
WELL-KNOWN gangster and Kinahan gang member ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder at the Special Criminal Court.
The 37-year-old, with an address at Loreto Road, Maryland, in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Douglas on July 1, 2016, on Bridgefoot Street in Dublin.
Wearing a white shirt, navy tie, navy trousers and blue-and-white runners, Thompson thumbed through a red Bible that he brought with him to court while Justice Tony Hunt, presiding with Judge Flann Brennan and Judge Gerard Griffin, spent more than two-and-a-half hours reading through the evidence that lead to the guilty verdict.
Thompson regularly shook his head as Justice Hunt went over the evidence and when the court’s decision was revealed, he took up his Bible and stormed out the door leading to the cell area, followed by prison officers and a garda. He returned less than an hour later without his Bible, now wearing a blue T-shirt and black shorts, to be sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment, backdated to November 1, 2016 when he first went into custody.
Judge Hunt sympathised with David Douglas’s family, particularly his daughter, who witnessed the shooting. He said it was a terrible thing for anyone to see.
He further commended the gardaí involved in the case, saying that the standard of the investigation into his ‘execution’ was ‘second to none’. Michael O’Higgins SC, for Thompson, said he will appeal the decision.
Outside court Detective Superintendent Paul Cleary said the family of Mr Douglas was satisfied with the verdict. He added that the investigation is ongoing.
A well-known member of the Kinahan cartel, Thompson is a cousin of fellow-Kinahan gang member David Byrne, who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel shooting in February 2016.
Thompson has a series of convictions and was sentenced to 20 months in 2015 for his part in a pub brawl ‘sparked by slagging’ after a funeral.
During the murder trial the nonjury Special Criminal Court heard that the 55-year-old victim was shot six times shortly after 4pm, as he took a meal break at the counter in his partner’s shop, Shoestown. A semi-automatic pistol with its serial number removed was found next to his head.
Justice Hunt said yesterday that there is no doubt that Mr Douglas was murdered and that this was an execution involving intricate advanced planning and co-ordination.
He pointed out that the prosecution did not suggest that Thompson was the person who fired the shots, but that he was one of the people involved.
Specifically, Thompson had been driving a Ford Fiesta that was intricately involved in the murder plot. The Fiesta was seen interacting with other vehicles and individuals involved in the plot on the morning of the shooting.
It also drove past Shoestown four minutes before the shooting, in what Judge Hunt said was a ‘final check’ before the gunman arrived to carry out the planned execution.
Judge Hunt said Thompson was then caught on CCTV acting in a ‘furtive and suspicious’ manner on nearby Meath Street around the time of the shooting.
He dismantled a mobile phone and was seen later that evening at a restaurant with two other men that the court said were involved in the murder plot.
The defence had argued that while Thompson’s activities were ‘suspicious’, the evidence relied on by the prosecution had fallen well short of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But Justice Hunt said that any innocent explanation of all these different strands of evidence would require ‘an excessive reliance on unlucky coincidence’.
He said the court also took into account Thompson’s failure to answer gardaí when they questioned him about his movements on the day.
He was referring to evidence on day nine of the trial when it emerged that Thompson made ‘no comment’ to gardaí when asked to account for his being in the two alleged ‘spotter’ cars, a Mercedes and a Ford Fiesta, on the day.
He repeatedly replied: ‘No comment at this time’ when further questions on his links to the cars were put to him.
When he was questioned about being in a blue Mitsubishi Mirage at the entrance to a car park near St Stephen’s Green that evening and about his DNA being on an inhaler found in that car, Thompson again replied: ‘No comment’.
He gave the same reply when asked about his fingerprint being found on the rear-view mirror of each car and on a birthday card found in the Mitsubishi.
Judge Hunt said that the prosecution had largely relied on circumstantial evidence, and that each individual piece was not in itself enough to prove guilt.
However, taking all the pieces together, the court was satisfied that the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson was guilty as charged.
‘A member of Kinahan cartel’ The victim was shot six times