Grandfather provided his home as a safe house for hitman
A GRANDFATHER whose son was murdered over a drug feud offered his home as an overnight safe house to a Kinahan cartel assassin, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
Stephen Fowler, 62, pleaded guilty on Tuesday at the non-jury court to his participation in the attempted murder of Kinahan cartel target James ‘Mago’ Gately, a
member of the rival Hutch gang, when Gately was living in Belfast in April 2017.
Less than a month later, in May 2017, Gately survived a second assassination attempt when he was parked at the Topaz petrol station in Clonshaugh, north Dublin. He was shot five times in this incident.
Yesterday, Detective Garda Sergeant David Carolan told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that a conspiracy to murder Gately was under way as gardaí monitored Estonian hitman Imre Arakas upon his arrival at Dublin Airport in April 2017.
Det Sgt Carolan said gardaí monitored Arakas taking a bus from the airport to Dublin city centre, where he bought a wig, before he was collected by Fowler and another male and taken to Fowler’s home at Blakestown Cottages, Clonsilla, Dublin.
Mr McGinn said that at around 8.20pm on April 3, 2016, Fowler picked up Arakas in his van at
Said he would not name who he took instructions from
Barry’s Hotel in Dublin city centre. He then brought him to Blakestown Cottages because Fowler had ‘owed’ another unnamed male.
The next day, April 4, 2016, gardaí, on foot of a search warrant, went to the Blakestown Cottages address and arrested Fowler and Arakas.
In interviews with gardaí, Fowler said he would not name who he took instructions from because it would amount to a threat to his life.
In 2012, Fowler pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis worth €450,000 and served six years of an eight-year sentence.
The court will now review the matter of the 2017 offence, as Fowler was on a two-year suspended term at the time from his release of June 7, 2016.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, said Fowler knew that Arakas was in the country for ‘a criminal act’ but that Fowler was unaware of the plot to kill Gately.
Counsel said that Mr Fowler’s son, Eric, 34, was in Poland at the time of the offence and that Fowler had taken responsibility for a debt associated with his now-deceased son. Father-oftwo Eric was gunned down in front of his home at Blakestown Cottages on December 22, 2018.
Mr Bowman said that, with regards to Fowler’s previous drug conviction, it was Eric who was ‘the person of interest’ and that his client’s incarceration cost him a marriage of 36 years.
Judge Tony Hunt, presiding at the three-judge court, said the court would finalise sentencing in the matter, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years, on October 4.