Crime World

Notorious hitman and enforcer Lee McDonnell died in a Garda cell just a week after his last notorious crime. McDonnell is suspected of being the man who stabbed Thomas Griffen who tried to flee for his life by jumping in the Liffey but was later pronounced dead.Nicola talks to Niall Donald about McDonnell and his notorious criminal past.

On 5th December 2000 Ann O’Grady rings the Collins family to tell them Sandra has failed to return home after being out the night before. A major search is launched, covering miles of the surrounding countryside. Lifeboats comb the nearby waters, but there’s no sign of Sandra, apart from her dark pink coloured fleece jacket, which mysteriously turns up on the pier five days after she goes missing. There are two scraps of paper in the pockets, one has the phone number for an abortion clinic in the UK, the other has a mobile number for a local man. But the Collins family aren’t told who he is or what his connection to Sandra is about. 

It’s late January 2021 and Crime World reporter Ken Foy is waiting by his phone for a call from one of Ireland’s most notorious mob bosses. It takes several hours for the call to come through and when it does Foy can’t quite believe that he is talking directly to Daniel Kinahan - head of an international drugs cartel. But Kinahan is not calling to discuss his main business, instead he wants to talk boxing and an upcoming BBC documentary that’s promising to highlight his criminal links. He wants some positive publicity - it’s a propaganda push. 

“I can’t get my head around” the abuse allegations made by Witness B, Jeffrey Donaldson told police.The tape of the former MP’s interview with the PSNI was played at his trial in Newry Crown Count on Monday morning.The jury also heard Donaldson deny that he apologised to Witness in the case because he thought it would “make this go away”.“I wasn’t doing anything untoward,” Jeffrey Donaldson told police officers in relation to accusations made by Witness A.Donaldson (63) is accused of rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault. He denies all 18 alleged offences. There are two alleged victims, Complainant A and Complainant B.His wife Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road in Dromore denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.Allison Morris was in court.

Sean McGovern, right-hand man of Daniel Kinahan, was handed down a massive 24-year sentence yesterday for his role in a murder and a surveillance plot against a Hutch associate during the Kinahan and Hutch feud.Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan was an innocent man who stood beside the Monk as he attended his brother Eddie’s funeral after his murder in February 2016. That, gardaí have said, was enough to have him assassinated days before Christmas that year as Kinahan killers stalked their prey.Nicola and Niall speak to Eamon Dillon.

The murder of Pat Finucane is one of the most notorious of the Troubles. The 39-year-old Belfast solicitor was shot dead at his family home in north Belfast in 1989 by UDA gunmen. A series of investigations revealed collusion with the state. The first hearing of a public inquiry into the killing is set to take place soon – with Sir Gary Hickinbottom as chairman of the inquiry. Pat Finucane’s family, including his son, Sinn Fein MP John Finucane, has long fought for an inquiry into the case to be opened.  

 Jonathan Gill's latest court appearance, a family divided in two by a son's brutal killing of his allegedly abusive mother, wife killer Joe O'Reilly graduates from a university course in jail, and a prison watchdog boss has custom-made pillows designed of a killer's face. Eimear Rabbitt is joined by Neil Fetherston as we discuss the biggest stories on Crime World this week.

Newry Crown Court has heard Jeffrey Donaldson sent a message to a minister supporting one of his alleged victims, saying he wanted to “repent before them as he had before God.” The husband of an alleged victim in the abuse trial has broken down as he gave evidence on Thursday.  63-year-old former MP Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to all the 18 charges he is facing, they include rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault. His wife Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road in Dromore, County Down denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.  She is facing a trial of the facts.  Allison Morris is covering the trial for the Belfast Telegraph.

Siblings Bridie and Patrick Collins have spent 26 years trying to find their missing sister Sandra who vanished on a December night in 2000 from the small fishing village of Killala in County Mayo.Over the past year, the Crime World team has been delving into the story of Sandra in the hopes of unearthing information that might lead gardai to her remains.Nicola talks with Bridie and Patrick about Ghost: The Disappearance of Sandra Collins and their ongoing efforts to find her.