Cocaine Wars by Mick McCaffrey Read Free Book Online Page B

regarded as unlikely to give evidence in any future court proceedings. Many of them eventually identified the culprits to Gardaí, but it was usually after they were arrested, or when they were speaking off the record. Often when they spoke to Gardaí, they refused to sign their interview notes – meaning the evidence gathered was not admissible in court and was severely compromised.
    Of the independent witnesses present, many gave detailed statements that helped Gardaí to build up a picture of what happened. A security guard said he saw four men in a ‘silver Nissan small two-door car’ pull up outside the premises. He then saw the front-seat passenger put on a black balaclava and get out of the car with a knife in his hand. ‘Before he [Declan Gavin] got a chance to do anything, the man with the knife lashed out at him.’ He then described how Gavin initially struggled to get into Abrakebabra, and also described how a man with a golf club chased the knife-man after the stabbing occurred, while others threw missiles at the escaping Nissan car.
    None of the Abrakebabra staff were able to help Gardaí to identify the killer, because he had been wearing a balaclava. Another witness described how he saw the silver Nissan pull up, and heard the front-seat passenger shout ‘rat’ at a man standing in a crowd. The passenger, who was wearing a balaclava, then jumped out while carrying a knife in his right hand. He stabbed the man he had called a ‘rat’ seconds earlier, and the knife made contact with him somewhere in the chest area. He saw the injured man run into Abrakebabra, leaving a trail of blood behind him, while the knife-man followed him. He then said that the knife-man was unable to get into the restaurant. He also described how a bystander attacked the Nissan with a golf club, and he was of the opinion that several of the bystanders knew the identity of the attacker, although he did not.
    David Byrne, who was Declan Gavin’s close friend and a member of his gang, gave a statement to Gardaí in which he detailed how he was in the area around Crumlin Shopping Centre with four friends. The group arrived at Abrakebabra at around 3.20 a.m., and he had a short conversation with Declan Gavin. Shortly after this, he turned and saw Gavin being chased into Abrakebabra by a man with a balaclava who was carrying a silver knife. When the knife-man was unable to get into the ‘chipper’, he kicked the door and then turned and went towards the parked Nissan. Byrne then ran into Abrakebabra to see if Gavin was all right. He was later able to identify himself from CCTV stills shown to him by Gardaí.
    Mark Skerritt and three of his friends had spent the night of the murder in the Vatican nightclub in Harcourt Street. Then one of them drove the group of four to Abrakebabra at about 3.00 a.m. Skerritt was involved on the periphery of the row that Declan Gavin had broken up, although there were no cross words exchanged between the two men. Skerritt was around Abrakebabra when the Nissan Micra pulled up, and he heard the front-seat passenger shout out: ‘Deco, ye rat. You’re dead.’ He then saw the passenger pull on a balaclava and get out of the car with a ‘big butcher’s knife’ in his hand. Skerritt later told Gardaí that a passenger in the back of the Micra pointed out Declan Gavin to the knife-man, saying: ‘There he is over there’, before saying, ‘Get the rat.’ Skerritt remembered the knife-man approaching Gavin and saying: ‘Deco, it’s me’, or, ‘Deco, do you remember me?’ before stabbing him in the chest. Mark Skerritt was close by his friend’s car when the assault occurred; he went to the boot and got a golf club. He then chased the knife-man, who by now was running back to the Micra. Skerritt then swung at the knifeman, hitting him on the back. The knife-man managed to get into the getaway car, and