Crime World

A Gucci Gang leader who threatened a woman that he would have her son raped if they didn’t pay up an alleged debt has been jailed for 10 years. Mark Salmon rose to prominence in the notorious north Dublin mob after a number of high profile members were shot dead or imprisoned.

Nicola talks with Eamon Dillon about the ordinary working dad who secretly operated as a monstrous criminal thug. 

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Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murders of Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob have begun a new search in Co Wicklow.

It comes several months after gardaí carried out a search of a disused quarry in Co Wicklow in relation to the two women who disappeared in the Leinster area in the 1990s. 

Nicola speaks to Eimear Rabbitt.

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Retired garda detective Eddie Naughton spent the last 16 years of his career working on the Sandra Collins case. He remembers all the details and who was investigated. He recalls how few days after Sandra went missing, a local plasterer called Martin Earley dropped into the garda station to inquire how the search was going. Suspicions are raised about this married man and why he’s so interested in what has happened to a woman he claims to have only met in recent weeks. There is no sign of Sandra, her family cling on to hope that she has simply moved aw...

Bill Kenneally, a former accountant and basketball coach from Waterford City, is one of Ireland's worst-ever sexual predators. He's also a member of the southeast's most powerful political dynasties, a collection of Fianna Fáil TDs, senators, city councillors, and mayors who served for almost sixty years, right up until 2011. His influential connections didn't stop there.

As far as we know, Kenneally began his horrific campaign of sexual abuse on young boys when he was just seventeen years old. He was eventually brought to justice in 2016 when he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. In 2023, h...

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has now been cross-examined by the prosecution in Newry Crown Court where he is on trial over 18 alleged offences. He has plead not guilty to charges including rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecency. Both complainants alleged they were abused as children. His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road in Dromore, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending. She is facing a trial of the facts on mental health grounds. Allison Morris is covering the trial for the Belfast Telegraph.

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A rugby ace behaving badly, the Belfast riots draw sick comments from a US rapper, and glamour model Katie Price says Daniel Kinahan and her hubby are sharing porridge in a Dubai prison.

This is a wrap up of the top stories on crimeworld.com this week.

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The brother of an Irish soccer star has been reported missing and feared dead in Spain. The victim in his 30s had been living in Spain for a number of years and associating with members of the Kinahan organization. Nicola speaks to Niall Donald on this breaking news story.

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Crime World’s Ken Foy goes in search of a statement from Daniel Kinahan about the Panorama programme.

Much to his surprise, he ends up in a 35-minute-long phone conversation with the man himself.

Ken gets his statement, and the reaction to the BBC documentary is fierce, prompting yet another release from Daniel denying any involvement in the drugs trade. It’s just a ‘witch-hunt’ he claims.

But his attempts to ‘sportswash’ his reputation are truly scuppered when in April 2022 when an extraordinary press conference at Dublin City Hall is jointly held by the Irish, A...

Jeffrey Donaldson has denied raping a seven-year-old child, under cross-examination, saying “it simply didn’t happen”. The former MP spent Thursday on the witness stand in Newry Crown Court. During the questioning, he admitted having an affair. Mr Donaldson is accused of rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault. The sixty-three-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the 18 alleged offences.

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Eleanor Donaldson “met with a blank wall” when asking her husband Jeffrey about an incident with an alleged abuse – a jury has heard.  

Eleanor Donaldson also accused her husband of infidelity during police interviews.  

And Jeffrey Donaldson told police a letter sent to one of his alleged victims had nothing “to do with any allegation or any action involving sexual abuse”.  

His trial over alleged sexual offences is continuing in Newry Crown Court.  

The 63-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges, including one count of rape and allegations of indecent assault and gross indecenc...

MTK Global gets a major boost when US boxing promoter legend Bob Yalen is announced as their new president.

Nothing is going to stop Daniel Kinahan’s attempt to break America. A bizarre book, rap song and film about the Regency Hotel attack are released that paint the event in a very different light.

For a while it seems to work, MTK sign tournament contracts with Sky Sports and ESPN.

However, Daniel’s connection to the company proves troublesome again.

And then begin whispers about a new BBC documentary in the work...

Northern Ireland has seen serious race riots for the third year in a row. Masked men staged violent protests in number of areas, but the trouble was concentrated in the greater Belfast area, with homes set alight off the Crumlin Road and in east Belfast. A Glider bus was set alight on the Newtownards Road and a police car was burned in Portadown. 

The disorder followed an attempted murder involving a knife in north Belfast on Monday night – a 30-year-old Sudanese man has been charged.  

The Belfast Telegraph’s Kevin Scott was on the gro...

Daniel Kinahan is determined to dominate the boxing world – not even an attempt by a rival gang to assassinate him at The Regency Hotel in Dublin can slow him down. He continues to woo top level boxers onto his books. However, things get too hot on the Costa for the Kinahan brothers, they move to Dubai and eventually intense attention from policing authorities sees Daniel step down as the public face of MGM. But he’s still expanding the business with major signings like Carl Frampton. In the meantime, his cartel business is facing major disruption, by the end of 2018 more...

Notorious hitman and enforcer Lee McDonnell died in a Garda cell just a week after his last notorious crime. McDonnell is suspected of being the man who stabbed Thomas Griffen who tried to flee for his life by jumping in the Liffey but was later pronounced dead.

Nicola talks to Niall Donald about McDonnell and his notorious criminal past.

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On 5th December 2000 Ann O’Grady rings the Collins family to tell them Sandra has failed to return home after being out the night before. 

A major search is launched, covering miles of the surrounding countryside.

Lifeboats comb the nearby waters, but there’s no sign of Sandra, apart from her dark pink coloured fleece jacket, which mysteriously turns up on the pier five days after she goes missing. 

There are two scraps of paper in the pockets, one has the phone number for an abortion clinic in the UK, the other has a mobi...

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 talk boxing and an upcoming BBC documentary that’s promising to highlight his criminal links. He wants some positive publicity - it’s a propaganda push. 

...

“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 told police officers in relation to accusations made by Witness A.

Donaldson (63) is accused of rape and several counts...

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 have him assassinated days before Christmas that year as Kinahan killers stalked their prey.

Nicola and Niall speak to Eamon Dillon.

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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 family, including his son, Sinn Fein MP John Finucane, has long fought for an inquiry into the case to be opened.  

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 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.

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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 include rape and several counts of gross indecency and of indecent assault. His wife Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road in Dromore, County Down denies several charges of aiding and abe...

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 about Ghost: The Disappearance of Sandra Collins and their ongoing efforts to find her.

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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.

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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.

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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.” 

“The killing was cold blooded and calculated.” 

McCullagh tried to pin the murder on Lewis Jones, Natalie’s ex-partner, after having set up a false alibi. But...

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 Day Innocence Died has likened events in Derry with those in Palestine.

Nicola speaks with Adrian Kerr of the Bloody Sunday Trust and filmmaker Hannan Majid on their c...

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-old Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences said to have taken place between 1985 and 2008 involving two complainants known as Witness A and B.

...

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 indecency. Donaldson’s wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending. 

The 60-year-old is facing a trial of the...

 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.

Jenny Friel speaks to Marian Leonard to ask her why it's so important to her that McCann stays behind bars.

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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 time later, they experience a huge tragedy when their brother James is killed in a horrific workplace accident. 

It takes a toll on all of them, and Sandra must dea...

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.

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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 charge of rape. He denies all of the charges against him.  

His wife Eleanor Donaldson, of Dublinhill Road, Dromore in Co Down, is charged with aiding and abetting. She denies the charges.  She will not be in...

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 crackdown.

Nicola speaks to Eamon Dillon.

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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 speaks with Crime World's Eamon Dillon about Stokes.

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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 year, it was revealed County Antrim couple Neil and Donna Sands seemed to have taken the so-called ‘king of the trolls’, alleged owner of the site, Sebastian Bond, down. But now court has ruled he didn’t even know his cro...

 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 to safeguard kids and to demand vetting of those working within it.  

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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 against her.

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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 psychological torment spanned years.

Chloë McPolin speaks with Crime World journalist Roisin Gorman to discuss this bizarre harassment case and how Quinn’s sick campaign of...

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?

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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.

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