Free Cocaine Wars by Mick McCaffrey

that Brian Rattigan had a knife and had stabbed Declan Gavin. John Malone’s father gave a statement recalling his son naming Rattigan as having stabbed Gavin, Shane Maloney as having driven the Nissan Micra and Joey Redmond as being in the back of the car. When this was put to John Malone, he said he would not sign his interview notes. He said that he would not go to court and that if he did, he would say that he lied during his Garda interview and that his parents were also lying about what they had heard him say. He was released without charge.
    James Fullam from Crumlin had driven from Finglas with his friends. In his original interview on the morning after the murder, he told Gardaí that he had seen the knife-man get out of the car and run back into it, but he had not actually witnessed the stabbing itself. Detective Sergeant Peter O’Boyle detained Fullam at his home at around 8.00 a.m. on 12 October 2001. During his detention, Fullam spoke of witnessing the incident, and said: ‘It looked as though Declan Gavin had put his hand up and deflected the knife.’ He then described a secondary attack at the door of Abrakebabra, during which Gavin appeared to be having trouble getting through the front door and appeared to have been stabbed again. He said that after the incident he gave John Malone and Andrew Murray a lift home. He said that someone in the car, ‘I don’t want to say who’, said that Brian Rattigan was the man who stabbed ‘Deco’ Gavin. He said that the day after the stabbing he met with a number of people at Poddle Park in Crumlin, where the incident was discussed. Brian Rattigan’s name was mentioned as the knife-man, but Fullam said he wasn’t sure who said it.
    Detective Sergeant Seán Grennan arrested Justin Beatty at his home on the morning of 12 October, and he was taken to Sundrive Road Garda Station. Beatty said that he knew John Roche and Shane Maloney but hadn’t seen them arguing with Declan Gavin during the initial verbal row outside Abrakebabra. He conceded that he knew more about the incident than he had initially told Gardaí but said he was ‘not a rat... There’s nothing lower than a rat.’ He also stated: ‘The fella that did this already killed someone. What’s to stop him killing me?’ Beatty said that he had since spoken to John Malone about the incident and the events leading up to it, and Malone told him who the knife-man was. Beatty didn’t want to tell Gardaí his name but gave his initials – BR. ‘You know who he is. He was arrested for it wasn’t he?’ Justin Beatty went on to identify himself from CCTV stills captured at the scene, and described seeing John Malone speaking to a passenger in the Nissan Micra. Brian Rattigan then got out of the car and pulled a balaclava over his face. He was carrying a knife, Beatty said, while Joey Redmond got out after him. Rattigan then ran at Gavin, who ‘wouldn’t run away. He’d never do that.’ He didn’t see the actual stabbing but said that Joey Redmond was standing at the Nissan Micra, ‘making sure no one went for Brian Rattigan’. He named the four occupants of the Micra as: Shane Maloney, Brian Rattigan, Joey Redmond and John Roche, and described where each man was sitting. He said this off the record and wouldn’t include it in his statement as he feared for his life because: ‘I seen what they were capable of.’
    Andrew Murray, the soldier, was re-arrested on 23 October. During his detention at Crumlin Garda Station, Murray said he was ‘not naming names’, even though he knew them, because he was afraid for his life. He confirmed to Gardaí that he knew Declan Gavin well. He agreed that he had previously told Gardaí, off the record, that Brian Rattigan had carried out the stabbing, and that Joey Redmond and Shane Maloney were also involved. He said he would not go to court and did