After spinning web of lies,

Killer’s drunken admissions were crucial to guilty verdict, writes

OVERWHELMING circumstantial evidence tied together with the killer’s own admissions, wrapped in a litany of lies, was the State’s case against Aaron Brady.

The prosecution did not have a smoking gun. Forensics specialists found no DNA linking him to the scene of the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, the murder weapon wasn’t located, and the proceeds from the robbery were never recovered. Most of those suspected of involvement fled the country and people who had information were reluctant to assist gardaí.

However, following one of the biggest murder inquiries in the history of the State, the investigation team at Dundalk garda station gathered a wealth of evidence across two continents.

The prosecution, over the course of 66 days in front of the jury, carefully weaved together these strands of circumstantial evidence which they said proved beyond reasonable doubt that Brady (29) fired the shot which killed Det Gda Donohoe.

This was composed using a variety of aspects; motive, his ties to the robbery of the getaway vehicle, the communications blackout between the suspects at crucial times around the murder, the lies told, and the admissions made by Brady himself.

The first strand of evidence was motive. The robbery itself, the prosecution said, was carried out purely for monetary gain. They said texts retrieved from Brady’s phone showed he was in financial difficulty leading up to January 25, 2013.

He had promised to pay for a new car for his girlfriend, Jessica King, and also had to pay compensation over a separate court matter he was facing.

Like in many criminal trials, the prosecution relied heavily on phone contact as part of the case. Within days of the murder, gardaí had applied to access Brady’s phone records and this would be extended to cover other suspects and persons of interest. The court was told of suspicious patterns of telecommunications between the suspects.

There was a blackout among the phones of four suspects at crucial periods before and after the murder. The last activity on either of Brady’s

phones was at 8.01pm when he spoke with Suspect C for 25 seconds, also the latter’s last contact before the robbery. Suspect B last used his phone at 8.29pm after making a flurry of calls, eight in total, to Brady. Suspect A’s last contact was with Suspect B at 7.58pm.

The phones went dead and stayed inactive during the robbery shortly before 9.30pm, and remained silent for over an hour after.

From 10.38pm, the four suspects’ phones all became active again. There was a barrage of calls to each other, their relatives and their partners.

Brady told the trial he didn’t use his own phone because he was moving diesel waste cubes, and he couldn’t say why the phones of the other men were off. Prosecutor Lorcan Staines said it would be “an unbelievable piece of bad luck” if this was all a coincidence.

Evidence from the robbery suggested the gang must have been made up of local men. They were slick, organised and forensically aware, while they had intimate knowledge of the rural back roads leading across the Border. Witnesses also stated the men spoke with distinctive Border accents.

What a coincidence it would be, Mr Staines said, if at the exact moment Brady said he was moving laundered diesel cubes in a yard in Cullaville, a gang of local young men were targeting a cash-in-transit convoy just 13 miles away.

There was also suspicion around the accused’s selfYork, admitted lies in the days after the murder. He lied, he accepted, on several occasions about his movements that night. The prosecution said he was not just an admitted liar, but also a “compulsive liar”. Brady told big lies, little lies, stupid lies and clever lies, all for personal advantage.

He first told Inspector John Moroney on the roadside near the scene the following day that he was at the home of his girlfriend from around 7pm until 3am. His account contradicted the version of events given by Suspect A to the Inspector moments later.

The deception continued when he walked into Dundalk garda station 10 days later to clear his name, as he put it, over rumours going around of his involvement in the murder.

The lies extended beyond Brady himself, and he admitted he got Ms King, who was just 17 at the time, to give him a false alibi. These lies, Brady said, were because he didn’t want to alert gardaí that he was involved in diesel laundering activity.

Pressure

It was the prosecution’s case the lies were told to hide the fact he was at Lordship credit union shortly before 9.30pm carrying out the murder of Det Gda Adrian Donohoe.

As the murder inquiry intensified, the pressure on the suspects increased.

Within a matter of weeks five men now suspected of involvement – Suspect A, his brother, his father, Suspect C and Brady – all fled the country. Mr Staines told the jury this would be another unusual coincidence if none of them were involved in the Lordship robbery but decided to move to “far-flung corners” of the world within weeks of the crime. Brady fled to the US just five days after the PSNI searched his home, and settled in the Woodlawn area in New an Irish community in the Bronx borough.

It was in Woodlawn where Brady’s loose lips would ultimately seal his fate.

Daniel Cahill, a Dublin native working as a barman in New York, gave damning evidence.

He recounted three occasions when Brady admitted to shooting a garda – once following a bar fight, once while sitting alone at a bar counter crying into his pint, and once in a friend’s apartment.

The other New York witness, Molly Staunton, was less definitive in giving her evidence and the jury were warned about her testimony.

She spent two days in the witness box via video-link but, in the words of Brady’s senior counsel Michael O’Higgins SC, her evidence swayed back and forth like a pendulum.

At first, she said Brady admitted to murdering a cop during a drunken rant, but then told the court she couldn’t be sure, under cross-examination from Fiona Murphy SC.

In his closing address, Mr Staines put it to the jury if it was possible that two people, completely unconnected to one another, lied and were mistaken when they said Brady confessed to murder.

It was the defence’s case Brady was not at Lordship credit union that night, but rather 13 miles away engaged in diesel laundering activity on Concession Road.

His senior counsel described the prosecution case as “smoke and mirrors”.

After a mammoth trial, the longest in the history of the State, the jury decided they had seen and heard enough to convict Brady.

Irish Independent journalist Robin Schiller attended every day of the Aaron Brady trial over 26 weeks, and heard evidence from all 138 witnesses.