Crime World

It’s late January 2021 and Crime World reporter Ken Foy is waiting by his phone for a call from one of Ireland’s most notorious mob bosses. It takes several hours for the call to come through and when it does Foy can’t quite believe that he is talking directly to Daniel Kinahan - head of an international drugs cartel. But Kinahan is not calling to discuss his main business, instead he wants to tal...

“I can’t get my head around” the abuse allegations made by Witness B, Jeffrey Donaldson told police. The tape of the former MP’s interview with the PSNI was played at his trial in Newry Crown Count on Monday morning. The jury also heard Donaldson deny that he apologised to Witness in the case because he thought it would “make this go away”. “I wasn’t doing anything untoward,” Jeffrey Donaldson tol...

Sean McGovern, right-hand man of Daniel Kinahan, was handed down a massive 24-year sentence yesterday for his role in a murder and a surveillance plot against a Hutch associate during the Kinahan and Hutch feud. Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan was an innocent man who stood beside the Monk as he attended his brother Eddie’s funeral after his murder in February 2016. That, gardaí have said, was enough to hav...

The murder of Pat Finucane is one of the most notorious of the Troubles. The 39-year-old Belfast solicitor was shot dead at his family home in north Belfast in 1989 by UDA gunmen. A series of investigations revealed collusion with the state. The first hearing of a public inquiry into the killing is set to take place soon – with Sir Gary Hickinbottom as chairman of the inquiry. Pat Finucane’s famil...

 Jonathan Gill's latest court appearance, a family divided in two by a son's brutal killing of his allegedly abusive mother, wife killer Joe O'Reilly graduates from a university course in jail, and a prison watchdog boss has custom-made pillows designed of a killer's face. Eimear Rabbitt is joined by Neil Fetherston as we discuss the biggest stories on Crime World this week. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Newry Crown Court has heard Jeffrey Donaldson sent a message to a minister supporting one of his alleged victims, saying he wanted to “repent before them as he had before God.”  The husband of an alleged victim in the abuse trial has broken down as he gave evidence on Thursday.   63-year-old former MP Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to all the 18 charges he is facing, they...

Siblings Bridie and Patrick Collins have spent 26 years trying to find their missing sister Sandra who vanished on a December night in 2000 from the small fishing village of Killala in County Mayo. Over the past year, the Crime World team has been delving into the story of Sandra in the hopes of unearthing information that might lead gardai to her remains. Nicola talks with Bridie and Patrick abou...

Troubles with wedding dress shopping in an electronic tag, sports stars finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, and the week’s most bizarre story. This is a Crime World weekly round up from crimeworld.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The heartbroken family of murdered computer science student Qayyum Balogun believe he was chased down and murdered for trying to protect a girl from an assault during a music event. The 21-year-old was stabbed to death in the early hours of Monday morning just off Grafton Street in Dublin.  Nicola talks to Eimear Rabbitt about what happened to Qayyum and who the Gardai suspect in his murder....

Stephen McCullagh will do at least 31 years of jail time before he is even considered for release.  32-year-old Natalie McNally had been 15 weeks pregnant when she was subjected to a violent attack and murdered at her home in Lurgan in December 2022.    The judge, Mr Justice Kinney, told McCullagh that he committed a “brutal senseless murder and planned it in remorseless detail.”&nb...

A new movie about the events of Bloody Sunday and the fight for justice in its aftermath is touring across the UK with huge interest from the United States and even Dubai. Made with images and footage taken on the day, interviews with those who were there in January 1972 when British army paratroopers fired on unarmed civilians, and contributions from those who have fought for justice, The Da...

A jury has heard a police interview recording of a woman who claims she was raped as a child by Jeffrey Donaldson. Jurors at Newry Crown Court heard allegations against the former DUP leader by a woman who claims it happened when she was at primary school. She also alleged that Donaldson arranged for her to be sent to a Christian Rehabilitation Centre and apologised to her there. Sixty-three-year-...

Eleanor Donaldson “did nothing” when told of an allegation of abuse by her husband, Jeffrey Donaldson, a court has heard.  The claim from one of the alleged victims came during week two of the former DUP leader’s trial. 63-year-old Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.  The charges include one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross...

 Frank McCann murdered his wife, Esther, and her daughter, Jessica, on the 4th of September 1992. The moment Marian Leonard heard the news that her sister and niece had perished in a house fire, she suspected that McCann had somehow been involved. McCann received two life sentences in 1996. In recent weeks, Marian has once again had to meet with the parole board to ask them not to release McCann....

Sandra visits home every Sunday evening to see her family, however, they know little about her day-to-day existence in Killala.  They are shocked when she reveals her pregnancy in the late 90s but are also completely supportive. Sandra makes the difficult decision to give her baby daughter up for adoption.  The Collins family are deeply saddened by the move but understand it. A short tim...

It’s coming on two decades since a garda crackdown on Limerick promised to break the gangs that had turned the city into a warzone. So, where are the players now and why are so many still involved in drug dealing and organised criminality? Nicola speaks with Eamon Dillon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was originally published by our sister podcast, The BelTel on May 29, 2026. Jeffrey Donaldson’s wife planted a listening device in his car after becoming suspicious he was having affair with a constituent, a court in Newry has been told.  The 63-year-old former MP in on trial in relation to 18 alleged historical sex offence charges, dating from 1985 to 2008 – including a cha...

Blood bonds between organised crime groups have a long history in the underworld and in the efforts by law enforcement to get to the root of what holds outfits together. Now a familial bond between the Gucci Gang and the Kinahan Organisation have featured in Criminal Assets Bureau affidavits which give an insight into a troubled period of restructure in both groups in the aftermath of a garda crac...

A Garda Inspector Tom Quinn has told of the effects of a dog attack on his career, reputation and promotional ability in an extraordinary court case involving criminal Edward 'Blondie' Stokes and an altered video about an incident at his property. In a case that took eight years to come to court, Stokes pleaded guilty to a range of charges after evidence proved he set his dog on the Garda. Nicola...

Tattle Life is a self-described “commentary website”. Supporters of the site say it’s free speech, protects consumers, and that influencers are fair game, with the website saying it has a zero-tolerance policy to any abusive, hateful or harmful content. But critics claim users have published private documents, that the site facilitates vile and cruel trolling – even stalking.   Last...

 The life and death of Katie Simpson was steeped in horses - it is the equestrian industry that has come in for much criticism in the shocking review of her death conducted by Northern Ireland's Justice Department. The review paints a bleak picture of what her world was like from the moment she first met Jonathan Creswell. Nicola talks to Jenny Friel about the failings of the equestrian industry t...

The wife of crystal meth smuggler Nathan McDonnell is alleged to have been six times over the legal limit when she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of cocaine last August. Jackie O’Duffy McDonnell is set to appear in court early next month charged with driving while under the influence of cocaine. Nicola speaks with Niall Donald about Jackie O'Duffy McDonnell and the charge...

In Dungannon, a young woman suffering repeated miscarriages was targeted with cruel congratulations cards sent after every loss from an anonymous person. But in February 2024 this harassment escalated, a parcel arrived at her workplace and inside the box was a baby doll with its eyes cut out, packaged to look like a coffin. At the centre of it all is Patricia Quinn - a woman whose campaign of psyc...

Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch put up a decent performance in his latest election outing but has failed to make it to the Dáil. However, he has already vowed to try again. What is it that is driving the man known as the Godfather of the Hutch family and even a criminal outfit connected to it. Why does he really want to be a politician and will he focus next on a bid for Council instead? Hosted on Acast. S...

An arrest has been made in relation to the murder inquiry into missing boy Kyran Durnin who was last seen in the summer of 2022. The 50 year old woman is the third suspect to be arrested in the shocking case of the little boy who would have celebrated his 10th birthday earlier this month. A new search was underway at a domestic property in Drogheda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...