Boxer Anthony Fitzgerald avoids jail as court told he was target in Hutch-Kinahan feud

Anthony Fitzgerald (37) got into a fighting stance and “reacted” with the punch when the other man approached him aggressively in inner city Dublin.

A court heard Fitzgerald had previously “fallen foul of the inner city feud” and was targeted in stabbings after he acted as pallbearer at the funeral of a murdered member of the Hutch family.

Judge Bryan Smyth gave him a six-month sentence suspended for a year.

Fitzgerald, a father-of-three from Gloucester Place Lower, Dublin 1 pleaded guilty to affray on January 11, 2019.

Sergeant Michelle Lynch told Dublin District Court an anonymous 999 caller reported a fight was breaking out on Railway Street.

Gardaí viewed CCTV and Fitzgerald was “clearly identified” moving from James Joyce Street to the scene, where he was seen in “a fighting stance” with his hands raised and throwing a punch toward a man.

He could be seen leaving Railway Street and returning to his home.

The other man declined to make a statement. Defence solicitor Yvonne Bambury said the man had arrived at the scene on a bicycle and “effectively started this”.

He had approached her client in a fighting stance and “my client punched him”, she said, adding: “The individual approached my client aggressively and my client reacted”.

The former professional boxer “unfortunately fell foul of the feud in the inner city” because he had been pall bearer at a funeral and “people took umbrage at that and he became a target, Ms Bambury said.

He had been under threat ever since and was stabbed twice because of his family affiliations.

Fitzgerald helped carry the coffin of feud victim Gary Hutch after his murder in Spain in September 2015, and is a cousin of the Hutch family.