Latest news with #CrimeIreland
Irish Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Sean McGovern changes legal team in challenge against extradition
Sean McGovern, who has challenged the legality of his extradition from the United Arab Emirates to face charges of murder and directing a criminal organisation, has made an application to change his legal team. At the Special Criminal Court today, legal representatives for McGovern said that Michael Staines solicitors wished to withdraw from the case, with the accused to now be represented by Wayne Kenny solicitors. Via video link from prison, McGovern confirmed that he was happy with this application, with Ms Justice Karen O'Connor putting the matter back for mention to July 28 next. The accused is to be produced in court on that date. McGovern (39), with a previous address at Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12 is charged with the murder of Noel Kirwan on December 22, 2016 at St Ronan's Drive, Clondalkin in Dublin. He is also charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation in connection with the same murder between October 20 2016 and December 22, 2016. He is charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation in connection with the surveillance of James Gately in preparation for the commission of an indictable offence between October 17, 2015 and April 6, 2017. Another charge alleges that between October 20 and December 22, 2016 he contributed to or participated in activity intending or being reckless as to whether such activity would facilitate a criminal organisation in the murder of Mr Kirwan. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week He faces a similar charge of facilitating a criminal organisation in a conspiracy to murder James Gately. He was previously extradited from the United Arab Emirates to face the charges, but in June, lawyers for McGovern raised a concern about the legality of his extradition to Ireland. Olan Callanan BL said: "The fundamental concern is the legality, the propriety and the process which surrounded his arrival in Dublin."
Irish Daily Mirror
15 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Jay Slater's friend breaks silence over knives 'stuffed into pants'
A friend of tragic teen Jay Slater has revealed where he got the two knives he armed himself with before his dead body was discovered at bottom of Tenerife ravine. The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished on his first ever trip abroad in June last year to attend a music festival on the Spanish Island with pals. After an extensive month-long search involving helicopter crews, search dogs and drones, Jay's remains were discovered in steep, rocky terrain near the remote village of Masca. Now a year on, his close friend Lucy Law, who joined him on the holiday, has made a bombshell claim that the teenager stuffed two knives into his pants for "protection" on the night he vanished - and revealed where he got them from. In a podcast released by celebrity investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, Lucy shared a first-hand account of what happened in the lead up to Jay vanishing, along with Ayub Qassim, the convicted drug dealer who Jay accompanied back to an AirBnB in Masca after attending the NRG music festival. Lucy claims police in Tenerife "weren't taking me seriously" when she first reported the teenager missing. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week She said Jay was "going on a mission" the night before his disappearance - and then sent a photo to a friend the following day which showed him carrying knives he found at his Airbnb in Masca. "On the night before, when I was still awake, before we went home, he messaged me saying 'I'm going on a mission', then I've gone home, tried to find him…," she told Mark Williams-Thomas. 'Woke up to the call from Brandon in the morning 'oh my God he's in the mountains, trying to walk…. He's said 'can't go back there, can't go back there' (referring to the Airbnb rental where he had stayed)." Lucy then spoke to Jay and told him: "Go back to where you came from, do you know anything about where you are?" She then talked to Josh, who was a friend of Jay and staying in Tenerife, who had received the photo of the teenager carrying the knives. Lucy said that Jay had met Josh on the plane to the holiday island. "He sent the video to Josh," said Lucy, of the footage showing Jay with the knives. "Took the kitchen knives from the Airbnb and put them down his pants, lifted his top up and shown it to him 'Just in case anything kicks off'. I'm like…" She added: "It could have just been a coincidence but with him also saying about going on a mission..." It came after Jay bragged about snatching a £12,000 AP watch while "off his undies". In a Snapchat post, he boasted: "Just took a 12k rolly off some c*** wi this Mali kid off to get 10quid for it now haha off my undies." Another Snapchat, sent at a similar time, read: "Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 maili kids just took an AP off some c*** on way to sell it for 10 quid." At 7am, Jay sent a 13-second video of himself smoking a cigarette outside an Airbnb, taking in the mountain view. Minutes later, he filmed a final, seven-second clip showing the rugged landscape. Police later geolocated the footage to Masca - the same area where his body was eventually found. The teenager had been driven to the Airbnb by Britons Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas. An inquest into Jay's death was last month adjourned after his mum Debbie pleaded for more witnesses to come forward. She said: "We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn't come back, so there's questions we need to ask." A number of witnesses were asked to give evidence at the hearing at Preston Coroner's Court but were either not traced or were unable to attend despite extensive efforts, the court was told. The group included Ayub Qassim and Lucy Law, whose stepfather Andy Davis said she had no idea that the inquest was taking place.
Irish Daily Mirror
16 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Number of male victims of sexual offences in Ireland rises by over 50 per cent
The number of male victims of recorded sexual offences rose by 54 per cent between 2023 and 2024, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows. The increase related mainly to a near doubling of such crime incidents that were reported by males more than a year after the occurrence. In seven out of 10 (70 per cent) recorded crime incidents of sexual offences in 2023 that had been detected by 2025, the suspected offender was known to the victim. According to the CSO data of Recorded Crime Victims 2024, the number of female victims of sexual offences increased marginally from 2,387 in 2023 to 2,419 victims in 2024. Women remained the main victims of recorded crime incidents of sexual offences, accounting for three out of every four victims in 2024, compared with 26 per cent for males. The suspected offender was known to the victim in seven out of every 10 (70 per cent) recorded crime incidents of sexual offences in 2023 that had been detected by 2025. Looking at the nature of the relationship in more detail, the CSO found that in 16 per cent of detected crime incidents of sexual offences, the suspected offender was a friend or acquaintance of the victim and was a blood relative in 13 per cent of incidents. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week Current or former intimate partners or spouses accounted for 8 per cent of all suspected offenders for this type of offence. The share for other suspected offenders known to the victim was 18 per cent and this relationship category would be considered less personal in nature to the above categories. The suspected offender was a stranger to the victim in three out of every 10 (30 per cent) such detected crime incidents. In 2024, 50 per cent of victims of crime incidents of sexual offences were aged under 18 years at the time of occurrence. Most other victims were aged between 18 and 44 years. In 2024, three in every ten sex crime victims reported the incident more than 10 years after it occurred. This was up from 22 per cent in 2023 and 21 per cent in 2022. Meanwhile, seven out of every 10 crime incidents of harassment and related offences in 2023 that were detected by 2025 involved a female victim. In most cases, the suspected offender was a male. There were 77 recorded victims of crime incidents of homicide and related offences in 2024, down 11 from the 88 victims recorded in 2023. Of the total victims, 41 were by murder or manslaughter while the remaining 36 were by dangerous driving leading to death. Three out of four victims of all crime incidents of homicide offences in 2024 were male, while 26 per cent were females. There were 24,142 recorded victims of crime incidents of attempts/threats to murder, assaults, and harassment offences in 2024 and this was the highest over the four-year period 2021-2024. Within this category, 62 per cent of assault victims were male compared with 38 per cent for females. When assessing detected crime incidents of attempts/threats to murder, assaults and harassment, friends or acquaintances accounted for 13 per cent of suspected offenders. Current or former intimate partners and spouses accounted for 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively of suspected offenders. The share of blood relatives among suspected offenders was 7 per cent, while it was 5 per cent for people in a position of authority or in a care relationship with the victim. The share for other suspected offenders known to the victim was 23 per cent. In more than a third (35 per cent) of such crime incidents, the suspected offender was a stranger to the victim.
Irish Daily Mirror
17 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tourist jailed in Turkey for 'stupid mistake' while toasting partner's new teeth
A woman has been imprisoned in a Turkish jail for the last six weeks after she trashed a hotel room while drunkenly celebrating her boyfriend's new teeth. On May 2, Georgia Harrison, 32, along with her boyfriend Arron Tighe, also 32, landed in Antalya, Turkey, but things took a disastrous turn just four days into their trip. The couple, from Rochdale in the UK, were celebrating Arron having got himself a fresh set of teeth costing £2,000 (approximately €2,350). The celebrations, however, took a wild turn back in their hotel suite hours later, reports The Daily Star. The couple had damaged the shower screen in their hotel room during the celebrations, but while trying to depart the premises in a taxi and head to the airport, they were both arrested. Georgia, who cleans for a living, reckons she made 'the worst mistake of my life' that evening by mixing her drink with antipsychotic medication, which caused her to lose consciousness and 'throw things around' in the room, shattering a full-length glass bathroom screen. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week Speaking to MailOnline, she said: "It's driving me insane, I feel like I have got no way out of here. I know I did wrong and I regret being so stupid to have damaged the hotel, but I need to get home to my daughter. "I just feel so weak and I'm getting nowhere, it's killing me. I understand I have done wrong but I'm not a bank robber or a drug smuggler - I made a stupid mistake, I don't even remember doing it, but I have done all I can to fix it." After their arrest, the couple allege they were detained in a police cell for days, interrogated without legal representation, and accused of resisting arrest because Georgia wouldn't respond to questions. They subsequently appeared before a judge and were prohibited from leaving Turkey until a £15,000 hotel bill (approximately €17,500) was settled. The couple reached out to the British Embassy in Turkey, which was unable to lift a travel ban on them, and suggested they seek legal counsel. They claim they spent £2,500 (approximately €2,900) on a lawyer who vowed to resolve the issue, yet six weeks on, they remain stranded in Turkey, unable to leave. Georgia, a mother to 12-year-old Poppy, is distraught as her daughter repeatedly phones to enquire when she'll return home, prompting Georgia to initiate a GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost of the damages so she can fly back. "It's heartbreaking, she doesn't understand why I can't come home. Sometimes I think I'm never going to get back to her," Georgia said. On her GoFundMe page, Georgia wrote: "I feel so ashamed writing this but my daughter needs me and this is my only hope. I feel like giving up but that's not me, yet I also feel so lucky to be alive. "I put all faith in my lawyer giving him my power of attorney but l'm getting nowhere. I'm losing everything slowly, even my will to live. I just need to get home to my baby and my dog. "I don't understand how such a stupid mistake has led me here. It is illegal for them to keep me here and I've no option but to start telling my story."
Irish Daily Mirror
17 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Sledgehammer attack on takeaway being treated as 'racially motivated hate crime'
An investigation has been launched after reports of a burglary in Bushmills in the early hours of Wednesday morning, June 18. This incident resulted in criminal damage being caused to the premises of a takeaway restaurant. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed that they responded to reports of a number of people smashing the front door and windows of a fast food establishment with sledgehammers between 2am and 2.30am this morning. Additional damage was caused when the individuals gained entry to the premises. Detective Inspector Lavery said: "Shortly before 2.25am, it was reported that three masked individuals used sledgehammers to cause damage to the front door and front windows of a fast food restaurant, before entering the premises, and proceeding to cause more damage inside. "It is not believed that anything was taken during the incident, and there was no one inside the premises at the time. "We are treating this report as a racially motived hate crime, and officers remain at the scene this morning, conducting enquiries." The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week PSNI investigators have now issued an appeal for witnesses or anyone with information in relation to the incident to make contact with authorities. A spokesperson told The Irish Mirror: "Anyone who may have any information which would assist us, is asked to contact detectives via 101, quoting reference number 107 of 18/06/25, or submit a report online using our non emergency reporting form via You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at
