Accused 'panicked' after arranging to meet dissident at murder scene, defence say

A man accused of perverting the course of justice in connection with a dissident republican murder in County Meath has been remanded on bail pending judgment at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin. Ray Kennedy is charged with deliberately destroying a mobile telephone SIM card on the day Peter Butterly was fatally shot in a car park at Gormanston on 6 March 2013. The prosecution has contended that the SIM card would have held significant evidential value to the garda murder investigation, with evidence indicating Kennedy's phone had been in contact with a burner phone connected to the killing. Kennedy had arranged to meet Butterly that afternoon and arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting. While waiting to be interviewed by gardaí, he removed and destroyed the SIM card. His defence counsel argued at the three-judge hearing that Kennedy had plausible grounds to panic following his arrangement to meet Butterly regarding an illicit matter, and submitted that the State had failed to establish the charge beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution maintained Kennedy's actions constituted a calculated attempt to hamper the investigation. The court, presiding Justice Tony Hunt with Judges Gerard Griffin and Flann Brennan, adjourned to deliver judgment on 17 May 2021. The murder inquiry into Butterly's death has already resulted in convictions of six men: four received life sentences for the killing itself, while two others were imprisoned for roles in the conspiracy. Kennedy, aged 40 from Blanchardstown in Dublin, is also separately charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, to which he has pleaded not guilty.