THIS is the CCTV footage that helped nail evil cop killer Aaron Brady and his best friend when they stole the getaway car used in the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.
The video was among 400,000 hours of footage seized as part of the largest ever Garda investigation and shows the gang before and after they robbed the murder car.
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Det Garda Donohoe, 41, was shot dead while on an armed cash escort at Lordship credit union in Louth on January 25, 2013.
The gang fled in a dark-coloured Volkswagen Passat which was later found burnt out on Cumsons Road in south Armagh.
Investigators established that the car was stolen three nights earlier from a house in Clogherhead, Co Louth, in a creeper burglary.
A team of over 30 gardai painstakingly tracked and reviewed footage from hundreds of locations which linked thug Brady and his best pal to the car theft.
James Flynn’s silver BMW 5-Series, with a distinctive vinyl wrapping on its roof, was traced leaving his home in the early hours of January 23, 2013.
Footage showed him at a garage near his home in Ballymascanlon before the car was tracked driving south towards Clogherhead.
CCTV from Corr’s Pharmacy on the main street showed Flynn’s car passing by at 3.17am on January 23.
Minutes later, the car was seen driving in the opposite direction — during which time the gang had stolen the Volkswagen Passat from the nearby Hillcrest estate later used in the murder.
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Mobile phone evidence also helped establish Brady was with Flynn when the getaway car was stolen.
Expert evidence by Det Gda Gareth Kenna, along with testimony by specialists from Acuity Forensics, helped prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were involved in the creeper burglary.
Flynn bought the car in late 2012, but sold it weeks after the robbery, with gardai seizing it later that year.
The Special Criminal Court last year jailed Flynn for eight years for conspiring to steal the vehicle, saying the car was stolen for the specific purpose of being used in the murder.
It found that Flynn and Brady were both involved in the crime along with a third man.
In 2020, a jury convicted Crossmaglen man Brady of capital murder, finding that he was the masked gunman that shot dead Det Gda Donohoe in the car park.
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The CCTV footage was also used in his trial and helped show the jury Brady was centrally involved in crime in the lead-up to the murder.
Other vital evidence, including mobile phone data and testimony from witnesses that Brady confessed to, ultimately led to him being convicted and he is now serving a life sentence with a minimum of 40 years’ imprisonment.
The footage is revealed in a new book, Murder at Lordship, by journalist Robin Schiller and former Detective Inspector Pat Marry, who led the investigation.
The book, released this week, details the Garda investigation into the murder and robbery at Lordship as cops teamed up with agents in America to catch the gang.
Active member of gang
While James Flynn was also charged with the robbery, the Special Criminal court acquitted him of the charge saying there was insufficient evidence to put him in the car park during the 58-second raid.
However, the non-jury court found Flynn was an active member of the gang and carried out surveillance with Brady of the credit union the night before, and day of, the robbery.
The judge said Flynn lied about his whereabouts at the time of the robbery.
He said Flynn drove his BMW to the site where the getaway car was burned out and removed the culprits from the burn site.
He said therefore that Flynn was an accessory before and after the event.
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