MOBSTER’S HOUSE IS BOUGHT IN AUCTION
HARRIS WARNING ON ONLINE PREDATORS
THE Kinahan cartel’s No. 1 man in Ireland,
Ross Browning’s plush countryside property — complete with ‘escape hatch’ — has been sold to a single bidder for €550,000.
The luxury property ‘Chestnut Lodge’ in Garristown, north county Dublin as well as a two storey brick built house, a large commercial warehouse, three stables plus an expansive tarmacked yard on 3.2 acres — was taken into the possession of the CAB as part of a €1.4 million case against Browning and several of his family members.
The property was purchased partly with Browning’s drug money, the High Court ruled.
Two beachside parcels of land in Rush, north Co Dublin, which the CAB claim Browning was behind, were also auctioned off and sold during the online auction.
The CAB claimed Browning purchased one of the parcels of land “with a cheque from his then 8-yearold son’s account”.
The second parcel of land was purchased in the name of Browning’s mother Julie Conway in 2011, the CAB says.
One of the parcels of land is 0.2 acres and was sold for the Advised Minimum Value of €45,000 to one bidder while the second parcel of land was sold to one bidder for the Advised Minimum Value of €20,000.
Last year at a High Court hearing, Judge Alexander Owens appointed a receiver to take charge of the property at Garristown and the lands in Rush.
Bidder
Earlier, we exclusively revealed the property was up for sale by public online auction. That auction took place yesterday at midday and lasted one hour.
One single bidder purchased the sprawling property for the Advised Minimum Value (AMV) amount of €550,000. The auction site also showed that 31 people were watching the auction online.
Money from the sale will go to the Exchequer and a percentage will go to some of Browning’s family who used their own funds to renovate the property.
IRISH children are being forced to sexually abuse their siblings live on video after they were blackmailed by online predators, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has warned.
“Regrettably, very regrettably, that’s a feature of this,” the Commissioner said yesterday. “A child is intimidated, coerced into live abuse, perhaps of a sibling or younger friend, and that’s part actually of the coercion and abuse of the child.”
Perverts
He also revealed that the kids’ tormentors often sold on the abuse images to other perverts online – and he appealed to parents to be more vigilant about their children’s internet activities.
The Commissioner made his comments at a meeting with the Policing Authority, and revealed that in the first three months of this year alone, his officers have identified 25 Irish children who were being abused online.
Mr Harris added: “This should be of great societal concern. Children are being targeted through the internet, be it through social media, be it through gaming sites.
“They’re being targeted by predators who build up a relationship and then turn that relationship into one of abuse through coercion and blackmail, and then blackmail and threaten that child to bring other individuals into this offending and abuse as well.”
He also revealed that in 2024 alone, the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent over 10,000 reports of child sex abuse material to gardai — a 300 per cent increase.
Mr Harris said of online child abuse: “It is of major concern. I think it is far more prevalent than people realise.
“We reported on the huge increase in reporting made to us of online sexual abuse, and it should be of concern. This requires a global response really from law enforcement.
“And we in An Garda Siochana here in Ireland want to do our utmost to prevent this crime, detect offenders who may be here in Ireland but also play our part to identify victims who may also be in Ireland as well.”
The top cop said the risk of kids being drawn into abuse online were increasing all the time.
He said: “I think just the prevalence of social media, the number of children, more and more children who have access to smart devices and social media, in particular, mean that the risks are greater and it is more prevalent in terms of the reporting that we are receiving from social media sites.”
Stardust
Meanwhile, Mr Harris also confirmed that he had asked detectives from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation to revisit the force’s probe into the 1981 Stardust fire – after last week’s inquest findings that all 48 victims of the Artane club fire were unlawfully killed.
The force is awaiting the report of the inquest from Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane, but Mr Harris said: “We’re beginning the process of collecting all the information together and then being in position and to make an assessment.”