Mobster Ger Dundon faces two-month wait for sentence over €343k blackmail plot in UK

The 37-year-old senior member of Limerick’s infamous McCarthy-Dundon gang was convicted by a jury in January of two charges of conspiracy to blackmail and one of conspiracy to falsely imprison. He was cleared on two charges of kidnap.

The Sunday World previously revealed criminal has changed his name by deed poll to Darren McClean and it was this name that he was referred to throughout the lengthy trial.

He was the only one convicted in the trial with four others, including Drogheda criminal Mark Kavanagh, cleared of all charges.

The trial heard that two brothers were blindfolded and warned they would have their brains splattered 'all over the road' while held at the controversial caravan site at Smithy Fen, Cambridgeshire.

The pair, who cannot be named, were fed sleeping tablets, were made to wash with Dettol spray and forced to call their relatives trying to get the money for their release in July 2020, jurors heard.

In January, Darren McClean, aka Dundon was convicted by a jury of two charges of conspiracy to blackmail and one of conspiracy to falsely imprison after a trial lasting more than two months at Wood Green Crown Court.

He had shouted 'this is bulls--t' adding: 'This court is corrupt to the backbone, the decision was wrong' when the verdict was announced.

Quincy Bramble, 33, was cleared of two charges of conspiracy to falsely imprison and two of conspiracy to blackmail.

Dundon was also cleared of one count of conspiracy to falsely imprison while both Dundon and Bramble were also cleared of two charges of kidnap.

Danny Bridges, 41, Mark Kavanagh, 34, and Lisa Marie Finnerty, 39, were cleared of two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison and two of conspiracy to blackmail, between 7 and 17 July 2020.

Gang boss Cornelius Price, 40, originally from Gormanstown, Co Meath, Ireland, was too ill to stand trial with his five alleged associates after he suffered a brain injury.

Price died in a Welsh hospital last month and his funeral took place in Rochdale, north west England, on Monday.

Dundon was due to be sentenced today but it was adjourned until 5 May.

Judge John Dodd told counsel: "I am sorry it was taken out of the list today.”

“I hope it has not caused you any inconvenience.”

The court heard that prosecutor Anne Whyte KC is currently held up at a trial in Liverpool.

Deputy prosecutor Eloise Emmannuel said: “I'll be available. I am quite content to sentence without my leader.”

“Let's say 5 May. If it is impossible we will have to move it.” said Judge Dodd.

Ms Whyte had earlier told how the brothers were driven to a flat in Highbury Hill, near Arsenal football stadium, on 8 July 2020 in a hired BMW car.

One of the victims said they believed they were meeting someone to pay a debt of £7,500 they owed to a man called Warren Crossan, who was shot dead in Belfast in June 2020.

One of the brothers believed the debt had been passed to a man who called him from an unknown number.

“Some of the men in the flat were armed,' said Mr Whyte.

“McLean was wearing jogging bottoms, a jacket and a facemask. The victim could see a handgun in McLean’s waistband.

“Inside the flat, McLean spoke to the victims. Then, without warning, four or five black men ‘stormed’ into the room. They were all armed with knives or bladed weapons.'

Kavanagh, of Manchester, McClean, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, Bridges, also of Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, Finnerty, of Lancashire, Bramble, of Stepney Green, east London and McClean, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, all denied two charges of conspiracy to falsely imprison, and two charges of conspiracy to blackmail between 7 and 17 July 2020.

McClean (Dundon) and Bramble alone also denied two charges of kidnap on 8 July 8 2020.

McClean (Dundon) had admitted two charges of driving whilst disqualified in July 2020.

It is unclear when Ger Dundon changed his name to Darren McClean but it is believed to have been after he left Ireland following his release from PSNI custody having been arrested in relation to the murder of gangland psychopath Robbie Lawlor.

The Limerick gangland thug, who has a wide range of crime contacts throughout the UK, is understood to have “hooked up” with his pal Cornelius Price (40) who was then based in the English town of Rochdale. Price’s funeral took place there earlier this week.

Ger Dundon’s brothers, Dessie, Wayne and John, are all serving life sentences for different Limerick murders. He was jailed for four years in October, 2018, after he helped hide an automatic, pump-action, sawn-off shotgun in an outside toilet of a house, and then fled from armed gardaí in a dangerous high-speed chase on February 26, 2017.

After his release from jail, Ger Dundon continued to be involved in serious organised criminality and he is a suspect in the murder of notorious gangster Robbie Lawlor in the North.

In December, at Belfast High Court, during a bail application for a man charged in connection with Lawlor’s murder, Dundon was named as being part of a three-man hit team involved in the murder.