THE UNNAMED defendant convicted of the serious assault and abduction of Mannok director Kevin Lunney has been named.
Last week the High Court in Dublin lifted a ban preventing the identity of Alan Harte (40) of Island Quay Apartments, East Wall being revealed.
Last month Harte was handed a 30 year prison sentence for his role in the horrific incident in September, 2019 when Mr Lunney was kidnapped from outside his Kinawley home, bundled into a car boot, taken over the border, and tortured.
Harte was known only as defendant ‘YZ’ during the high-profile trial of four men, charged in relation to the incident, at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, due to an anonymity order preventing his identity being revealed by the press.
The order had been imposed as Harte had been on trial in another court on a murder charge, not related to Mr Lunney’s case. It was accepted that revealing Harte’s identity at that time would prejudice his rights to a fair trial in the separate hearing.
That trial has since collapsed and the murder charge against Harte has been dismissed. The banning order had continued on a temporary basis following the collapse of the trial, but was lifted at the High Court last Tuesday after Harte’s legal team failed in its attempts to have it extended.
Harte was convicted along with two other men – Darren Redmond (25), of Caledon Road, East Wall, in Dublin, Alan O’Brien (39), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall – of false imprisonment and assault causing actual bodily harm to Mr Lunney, following a lengthy trial. A fourth man was found not guilty of the charges.
At last month’s sentencing hearing in the Kevin Lunney trial, Mr Justice Tony Hunt had described Harte as the “ringleader” and the person who had inflicted most of the injuries on Mr Lunney in the September 2019 kidnapping.
It is understood all three men are to appeal their convictions and sentences.