A MAN SAID by gardaí to be the “best friend” of convicted murderer Aaron Brady has been denied bail by a UK court following his arrest under an extradition warrant relating to the robbery that saw Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe shot dead in 2013.
James Patrick Gerard Flynn, 30, was arrested in the UK last month under an international warrant issued by the High Court in Ireland on 12 July. He is wanted for six burglaries and a conspiracy to burgle, as well as for the 25 January 2013 robbery at a credit union during which Donohoe was killed.
Flynn’s barrister, Graeme Hall, told the High Court in London that his client “vehemently denies all of the allegations” and wished to be released on bail while the extradition request is processed.
But Mr Justice Fordham said there were “substantial grounds for believing that the Applicant would fail to surrender if released by me on bail”.
Flynn is reportedly from south Armagh but has both British and US passports. He moved to the United States in April 2013 and back to Northern Ireland in 2017. Hall told the court that his client has “legitimate business interests” in both jurisdictions, as well as in England, where he has an address in Watford just north of London.
Applying for bail, Hall emphasised that his client is of good character with no previous convictions and was compliant on arrest. He said that Flynn did not move to the US as a fugitive but to “pursue business opportunities” with his brothers. Since his return to the UK, he has “lived openly” and donated to his local foodbank.
Proposed bail conditions included the surrender of both his passports, a cash security of £100,000 and a surety of £350,000 linked to property owned by Flynn’s mother. Hall added that his client’s family ties to his wife and young son made him an unlikely flight risk.
The Crown Prosecution Service opposed bail, arguing that Flynn would fail to surrender if released and that the presumption in favour of bail under an accusation warrant was displaced by the circumstances of the case.
Fordham agreed, noting the seriousness of the alleged offences, in particular the robbery accusation. If convicted for his alleged part in it, Flynn “could expect a very substantial custodial sentence”, the judge said.
He also noted the conviction last year of Aaron Brady for the murder during that robbery of Detective Garda Donohoe. “The question is”, Fordham said, “who were the other raiders and was the Applicant one of them? There is a platform for a further trial, and the Applicant can be taken to understand this. That increases the risk and the incentive” to flee.
The judge recorded that, according to the Irish authorities, “the Applicant and Aaron Brady were best friends and were in each other’s company on a daily or almost daily basis in January 2013”. In a statement to gardaí soon after the robbery, Flynn had said he was “in the company of Aaron Brady” for most of the day on which the robbery took place. The Irish authorities also allege that Flynn gave Brady a “false alibi”, the court heard.
Fordham’s ruling concluded that there is a “very substantial risk and incentive that the Applicant would seek to evade and avoid accountability to the Irish criminal process, not by remaining in compliance with bail conditions and fighting his extradition through the process of law, but rather by seeking to relocate and by failing to surrender”.
If Flynn fights extradition, a hearing before a different judge will take place in the coming months. His solicitors have been approached for comment.
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