A man jailed for life for the murder of dissident republican Peter Butterly has failed in an attempt to have a further conviction appeal before the Supreme Court.
Sharif Kelly (54), last of Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court in April 2017. He had pleaded not guilty to the murder.
Between 2017 and 2019, Kevin Braney, of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin 24; Edward McGrath, of Land Dale Lawns, Springfield, Tallaght; and Dean Evans of Grange Park Rise, Raheny, Dublin all received life sentences at the Special Criminal Court for Butterly’s murder.
The Special Criminal Court heard Evans, who pleaded guilty to the murder, fired the three fatal shots into Butterly. Kelly was to be the driver of the getaway car but was caught by gardaí when he arrived at the meet-up point.
Butterly, a father of three, was shot dead shortly after 2pm in the car park of the Huntsman Inn at Gormanston, Co Meath, on March 6th, 2013. The killing was in view of students waiting for their schoolbus. He died from gunshot wounds to his neck and upper back.
The Special Criminal Court’s Mr Justice Tony Hunt said Butterly was murdered in an “execution-type” killing.
Kelly unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in April 2022, with the Court of Appeal left “unimpressed” by submissions that took issue with the evidence of his former co-accused, David Cullen, who turned State’s evidence.
Kelly took issue with the admissibility of Cullen’s evidence and the weight given to it by the three-judge court.
Protected witness Cullen was originally charged with Butterly’s murder but subsequently turned State’s witness more than a year after the shooting and his murder charge was dropped.
Cullen pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of a semi-automatic pistol at the Huntsman Inn on the day of the shooting and was sentenced in July 2014 to seven years in prison, with 3½ years suspended.
At the Court of Appeal, lawyers for Kelly also petitioned for “fresh evidence” to be allowed in the case that showed that Garda Joseph Doyle, the Garda vehicle witness who examined Kelly’s car, had been prosecuted on indictment for 111 offences relating to dishonesty and deception.
After Kelly’s trial, Doyle was given three years in jail for corruption and deception offences, in what was described as an abuse of his power.
Doyle, with an address at The Hawthorns, Kilcock, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to 29 sample charges in July 2024 on offences of deception, corruption and money laundering between 2018 and 2020. He was jailed for three years with the final six months suspended.
However, the Court of Appeal denied Kelly leave to adduce this as fresh evidence and held that the other evidence at trial remained “overwhelming”.
Kelly submitted to the Supreme Court that his appeal was one of “general importance” and “in the interests of justice” because his conviction was grounded on “unreliable evidence” and because the admission of the evidence of the main prosecution witness, Cullen, “brought the administration of justice into disrepute”. It was also submitted that as a witness, Doyle was “corrupt and unreliable”.
In refusing permission to appeal, the Supreme Court determined that matters of general public importance concerning the issue of the admissibility of accomplice-type evidence are primarily for the trial court to analyse.
The Court of Appeal applied well-established principles governing the admission of fresh evidence, including the role played by a witness and the importance of that witness and of any fact that is later sought to be asserted, the Supreme Court also determined.
The court said it would therefore not grant leave to appeal.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
