Tracker evidence heard at trial over Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan murder

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Jason Keating has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan. The proceedings were reported on 4 October 2018.

Kirwan was shot dead in his car at St Ronan’s Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin, on 22 December 2016. The prosecution claimed a tracking device had been put under his car weeks before the shooting.

Sergeant Damien Gannon said he found a Gotek 7 tracking device beneath the car on 23 December. Garda phone analyst James Kennedy said he received it on 5 January 2017. He described how it could use GPS, upload movements and send alerts.

Kennedy agreed that he had not retrieved any location data from the device’s internal memory. Under cross-examination by defence counsel Michael Bowman SC, he agreed that such devices could also be used on leased taxi fleets and that he had not interrogated the information because that task was passed to someone else.

The trial was continuing before a three-judge court, with Mr Justice Tony Hunt presiding alongside Judge Sinead Ni Chualachain and Judge Cormac Dunne.