Dundon crime boss partner jailed over €50,000 cash link to Robbie Lawlor murder

Ciara Lynch got an 18-month sentence last month over the cash which was linked to the murder of Drogheda gangster Robbie Lawlor.

Last January, Lynch pleaded guilty to money laundering after her arrest following the handover at the Midway Food Court in Portlaoise, Co. Laois, on April 6, 2020.

Lynch is engaged to Dessie Dundon (40), who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of rival crime figure Kieran Keane in 2003.

She was just 12 when Dessie Dundon was jailed for life for the murder of rival Kieran Keane.

The pair met during a prison visit and she has been a regular visitor to Mountjoy Prison where he is serving his time.

There is no suggestion that Lynch or a co-accused knew anything about the alleged connection between the cash and Lawlor’s murder in Belfast.

It is suspected the money may have been handed over as payment to members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang after they agreed to set up killer Lawlor.

Dessie Dundon’s brother Ger was later arrested by officers investigating the killing but later released without charge.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was “no evidence to support (him) being involved in the murder”.

Since his release, Ger Dundon, who changed his name by deed poll to Darren McClean, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the UK.

He was found guilty for his part in an extortion plot in which he threatened to shoot two men in the head if a st£300,000 ransom wasn’t paid.

Infamous Drogheda crime boss Cornelius Price had also been charged with that plot before becoming seriously ill and eventually dying in hospital.

It’s suspected it was associates of Price who recruited members of the McCarthy/Dundon gang to set up Lawlor and have him killed.

Hitman Lawlor, the prime suspect in the killing and dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready Woods, was shot by a lone gunman in Etna Drive, Belfast, on April 4 2020 .

In the money laundering case against Ciara Lynch a garda witness gave evidence in January that an investigation arose from confidential information about the transfer of a large sum of cash.

Officers were watching the Midway Food Court when a car parked and an hour later, a white Mercedes A-class with altered registration plates and driven by Ciara Lynch arrived.

Gardaí watched a man approach the Mercedes with a ‘Mr Price’ shopping bag and hand it through the front passenger window of the car.

The car was then driven away but was stopped by gardaí on the M7 travelling in the Limerick direction.

Gardaí recovered €50,000 in used €50 notes from the Mercedes, and Lynch and her co-accused were arrested.

The court heard Lynch replied “No comment” to all questions and that an analysis of her phone showed a WhatsApp call with one of the men in the other car.

The officer said neither woman had any history of employment in many years and both are in receipt of social welfare.

The court heard Lynch has three previous convictions, including for violent disorder and assault, while her co-accused has 31 previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences.

Judge Keenan Johnson described Lynch as the “more culpable” of the pair and that it was a “serious offence” involving a significant sum of money that “assists serious criminals”.

At a hearing in June this year the judge imposed a three-year sentence but suspended the final 18 months.

Lynch has three previous convictions and received a suspended sentence for violent disorder in 2011.

She was convicted when after a row at Limerick prison, she turned up at Alice Collins’s house in 2010 with three other women and attacked her car with a sledge hammer.

Lynch was acquitted a year later of intimidating Alice and April Collins, before they were to testify against John and Wayne Dundon.

April Collins is the ex-girlfriend of Ger Dundon – Dessie’s brother and Alice is her mother.