Garda killer Aaron Brady has sentence for recording witness interview increased

Garda killer Aaron Brady, who showed “contempt” for his capital murder trial by secretly recording a Garda interview with a potentially key witness, has had his three-year sentence increased following a successful appeal by the State.Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had argued that the case raised an important issue of “principle” rather than one of practical consequence, as Brady (35) is already serving a life sentence for the murder of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe.However, they said there are “very few, if any cases where deterrence would be more important”.Quashing Brady’s original three-year prison term and resentencing him to five years imprisonment on Friday, Judge Isobel Kennedy said the offending was an “affront to the administration of justice”.READ MOREWhat occurred was “premeditated”, “insidious” and “menacing”, the Court of Appeal judge said, and was aggravated by the fact that it occurred in the context of a capital murder trial.In August 2020, Brady, formerly of New Road, Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, was convicted by a jury of the murder of Donohoe during a credit union robbery at Lordship, Bellurgan, Co Louth on January 25, 2013.Det Garda Adrian Donohoe's remains are carried into the church for his funeral in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 2013. Photograph: Eric Luke In 2024, he pleaded guilty to a charge that on a date between February 20th and May 7th, 2020, within the State, he video-recorded the playing of a witness interview between Ronan Flynn and members of An Garda Síochána, thus embarking on a course of conduct intended to pervert the course of justice.A further count was taken into account. This related to conspiring with Dean Byrne to persuade prosecution witness Daniel Cahill not to give evidence with the intention of perverting the course of justice between April 8th, 2020 and June 22nd, 2020.Brady was sentenced to three years in prison by the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court.As Brady is already serving a life sentence for murdering Donohoe, his sentence for perverting the course of justice will make no difference to the time he serves.Brady accepted he was responsible for recording footage of an interview between gardaí and Flynn, a witness who told gardaí he had heard Brady admit to shooting Donohoe three times.The video was later posted on social media accusing Flynn of “touting” and being a “rat”.Flynn did not give evidence at Brady’s trial and Judge Michael White, who oversaw the murder trial, described the release of the footage as “the most outrageous contempt of court” and a clear attempt to intimidate Flynn and other witnesses.Brady also sent photographs of portions of Daniel Cahill’s statement to Dean Byrne (33), a violent criminal housed on the same wing of Mountjoy Prison.Byrne passed the statements on to at least two people. The State argued this was an attempt to get Cahill’s family members to persuade him not to give evidence.Cahill did give evidence at Brady’s trial, telling the jury that Brady admitted to shooting a garda on three occasions while Brady was living in New York, having fled from Ireland in the aftermath of the murder.