Kevin Lunney subjected to 'ordeal of callous brutality and gratuitous violence', prosecution say

At the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 3 August 2021, prosecutors outlined their case against four accused men charged in connection with the abduction and serious assault of Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, County Cavan on 17 September 2019. Sean Guerin SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the three-judge court that the evidence demonstrated Mr Lunney had endured "an ordeal of callous brutality and gratuitous violence" designed to terrorise and intimidate him, inflicting injuries intended to be permanent reminders of the attack. The offences, Mr Guerin said, showed sophisticated planning and organisation. He detailed how DNA matching Mr Lunney was discovered in a vehicle used in the abduction, and how surveillance evidence and phone records connected the accused to the crime scene and to deceased Cyril McGuinness, alleged by prosecutors to have orchestrated the offences.