Episode 1272: Mr Big's arrest, Sean McGovern's trial, and the cold case murder of Emer O'Loughlin

GERRY ‘The Monk’ Hutch walked free from court an innocent man after being found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.After a dramatic end to proceedings and a sensational judgement that branded State witness Jonathan Dowdall a callous, base and violent criminal who lied repeatedly to the court, Hutch was told the case against him had not been proven.Nicola Tallant talks with Niall Donald about Justice Tara Burns' lengthy judgement at the Special Criminal Court after she and Judges Sarah Berkeley and Grainne Malone worked into the early hours, about the damning remarks relating to Dowdall’s entry to witness protection, and the questions that remain about what went on behind the scenes after he was charged with murder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Apr 202348min

GERRY ‘The Monk’ Hutch will learn his fate on Monday when three judges from the Special Criminal Court return with a verdict after his lengthy murder trial. The stakes couldn’t be higher for the veteran criminal, who faces either freedom or a life sentence behind bars. Nicola Tallant and Niall Donald revisit the evidence given at trial as the big day looms and the judges reveal whether they believe he is guilty or not. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 Apr 202339min

IT'S a sensitive and tragic cold-case murder that has become part of the fabric of south Kerry. When five-day-old 'Baby John' washed up on a Kerry beach, his tiny body riddled with 28 stab wounds and his remains placed in a manure sack, nobody could have imagined how long it would take to solve the mystery of who he was. For almost 40 years, journalists and police suspected that the little boy must have been the product of incest or rape and speculated that a teenage mum may have given birth to him in secret. While some demanded justice for the child, many others believed the case should have been left to lie, and it was a regular occurrence that outsiders with questions to ask were made to feel distinctly unwelcome. So what has it been like for local reporters covering the case and what have they made of the recent developments that turned the spotlight on a well-known married couple, understood to be the parents of the child and who have vehemently denied his murder?Nicola Tallant speaks with Sinead Kelleher, a journalist and photographer with The Kerryman, about living too close to a story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

14 Apr 202318min

THE Marengo case against super-cartel kingpin Ridouan Taghi is drawing to a close in the Netherlands, where state prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for the feared gangster and a number of his senior lieutenants.Decrypted messages taken from a series of secretive phone networks used by criminals - including Encrochat and Ennetcom - have formed the backbone of the case and include evidence that Taghi ordered murders and drug shipments from his Dubai bolthole while partnered up with Daniel Kinahan.Nicola Tallant is joined by Jan Meeus, crime correspondent and podcaster with Amsterdam’s NRC media outlet, to discuss the Marengo trial, an appeal which may hear the first evidence of super-cartel supergrass Raffael Imperiale and an eerie calm that has settled in a country exhausted by narco terrorism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

12 Apr 202342min

One year since the Kinahan Organised Crime Group were sanctioned by the US treasury, the bad news has continued for it’s exiled leaders in Dubai.Nicola talks to journalist Eamon Dillon about the dramatic arrests, shocking revelations and the complex takedown plan targeted on the Irish who are last of the Super Cartel still free in the United Arab Emirates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

11 Apr 20231h 1min

IT'S the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement when a monumental task was achieved, and political divides agreed to peace in Northern Ireland.So what has that 67-page document meant for those living north of the border and for their futures, and can we ever really move on from such a bloody past?Nicola Tallant is joined by Belfast Telegraph Crime Correspondent Allison Morris about growing up in West Belfast, working the crime beat towards the end of the Troubles and being there for the momentous occasion 25 years ago when the impossible became a reality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8 Apr 202336min

He is locked up in a Colorado jail with some of the world’s most notorious prisoners, but the legacy of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman lives on in a never ending cycle of violence and corruption in Mexico.Since his incarceration his Sinaloa Cartel has continued to flood the US with drugs and terrorise the Mexican people from it’s base in Culiacan.Now with his chief bodyguard and right hand man handed over to the US and his son Ovidio Guzman finally arrested after a gun battle with Mexican military which resulted in the death of 29 people will things improve. Or is Mexico gone beyond being saved from the revelations of political corruption that have dogged each success.Nicola Tallant is joined by author Doug Century, whose book Hunting El Chapo, tells the story of the drug boss known as ‘Shorty’ and his on going influence on his homeland of Mexico. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

7 Apr 202354min

Frank Sinatra or Ol' Blue Eyes as he was known was one of the most popular entertainers in the 1940s and 50s. A singer, an actor and a member of the famous Rat Pack, the New Jersey-born, bobby soxxer was also moonlighting as an associate of the mafia.Crime World's Clodagh Meaney talks to Douglas Thompson and Mike Rothmiller about their explosive new book Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders.They tell Crime World about the shocking revelations in the hundreds of pages of files kept by the FBI, the mafia’s influence on Hollywood and how Sinatra’s relationship with the mob was mutually beneficial. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5 Apr 202346min