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A British man who came to Dublin four and a half years ago to kill dissident Republican Michael Barr, one of the victims of the dispute between Hutch and Kinahan, was found guilty of his murder.
David Hunter, with an address on Du Cane Road, White City, London, was found to be one of the masked gunmen who shot and killed the 35-year-old at Sunset House in Dublin’s north city center on the 25th. April 2016.
Two armed men, “in boiler suits and rubber masks” entered the bar and shot Michael Barr seven times, five times in the head, once in the leg and once in the shoulder.
The getaway car, a silver Audi A6, arrived on Walsh Road in Drumcondra at 9.20 pm and three men got out, set fire, got into a “possibly silver” Ford Mondeo and left the scene.
Gardaí arrived and put out the fire and discovered four pistols, including the murder weapon, boiler suits, balaclavas and rubber masks in the back seat.
They also found a “burner” phone, which had several missed calls, next to a bullet in the nearby grass.
David Hunter’s DNA was found in two masks, a ski mask and a latex mask discovered in the partially burned getaway car after the murder.
Hunter had claimed that he had come to Ireland from Liverpool on the ferry two days earlier to see a UB40 concert, but it had already taken place.
He also claimed that he had left a balaclava with his DNA in the getaway car two months earlier when he arrived in Ireland in February of that year to steal a car.
However, he was unable to explain why his DNA was found on the latex mask that the court determined he was wearing on the night of the murder.
Hunter also received a phone call an hour after the murder from one of the four phones used that night.
He told the gardaí that he had received a call that night from a man looking to buy his red BMW car that he brought to Ireland and was selling.
The Special Criminal Court considered this to be “incredible and false”.
He found it was more likely that when the gang couldn’t put Hunter on the burner phone that fell off after the murder that night, they would call him on his personal UK mobile phone.
Hunter admitted that he bought a new phone in Holyhead before boarding the ferry to Dublin, two days before the murder.
He said that after the murder he sold his car so he could get to Spain to enroll in a residential rehabilitation program, but he spent half the value of the car on two tickets, one in the name of Tom Wood, a flight to Malaga that was never used.
The court did not accept that his trip to Dublin was for “one last adventure” before rehabilitation, but found that this suspicious activity did not constitute evidence of murder.
Judge Alex Owens said the court was certain of David Hunter’s guilt and that he was one of two gunmen who entered the pub and killed Michael Barr.
He said the killers did not burn the car, they dropped a burner phone at the scene of the leak and Hunter’s DNA was found on two masks there.
The presiding judge of the Special Criminal Court also described Hunter’s explanations as “implausible.”
Hunter, he said, cannot explain where he was at the time of the murder, did not innocently give a credible explanation, and the facts along with the circumstantial evidence prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
David Hunter now faces mandatory life in prison.
He is the third person to be convicted in connection with the murder of Michael Barr and the seventh person to be convicted of one of the murders in the Hutch-Kinahan dispute.
‘Michael’s son is here, his heart is broken’
Speaking after the verdict, Michael Barr’s father said it was a “good day for us as a family” and that the verdict gives them “some satisfaction.”
“He was found guilty for all his lies,” said Colin Barr. “He came here from Liverpool to kill someone and go back to Spain.
“Michael’s son is here, his heart is broken.
“These kids need to know that there are consequences for life, that they will have to pay a price.”
Barr also said he is not concerned that the case involves the Kinahan organized crime gang.
“We know who is behind this,” he said. “Everybody knows it and people are willing to accept money to end a human life.
“I am not afraid of them, they can do whatever they want.”
Organized crime “has no place in Ireland,” he said. “Without the gardaí, these people would not be behind bars.”
Barr also asked that Hunter serve his full sentence in Ireland.
“The problem is that when he has served his sentence, they will send him to Liverpool.
“He left England to come here to murder an Irishman, he should not be sent home. He should be forced to serve his sentence here.”
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