THE conviction of a notorious Irish gangster raised in East London could be reviewed in the wake of the Garda phone recordings controversy.
Hackney-raised John Dundon was sentenced to life in prison last August for the murder of rugby player Shane Geoghegan who was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity on November 9, 2008.
Dundon was deported from Britain in 2000, is credited along with his brothers for beginning a reign of terror that made Limerick the ‘murder capital’ of Western Europe in 2007-2008.
Now it has been revealed that his solicitor John Devane is considering seeking a review of a number of cases in the wake of the Garda phone recording controversy, which saw telephone conversations recorded in Garda stations.
“While I sympathise with the Geoghegan family, I certainly believe that John Dundon’s telephone calls and consultations were listened to, both inside in the Garda station and I would go so far as saying also his telephone calls in the prison and to his previous solicitors and also to me,” he said.
“I am looking at a number of high profile murder cases and I am also looking at some other matters including a couple of rape maters and matters where people have been convicted - I have always believed in the wrong - of IRA membership”.
Shane Geoghegan died after he was shot five times in a case of mistaken identity.
In 2000 John Dundon was deported from Britain by a judge after repeated convictions for burglary and in one instance, pushing a wheelchair bound man down a flight of stairs.
He was followed to Ireland by brothers Ger, Wayne and Dessie, who all grew up the Hackney.
The Dundon’s father Kenneth had settled in the east London neighbourhood after moving from Limerick to the English capital city in 1981. He married Anne McCarthy in Hackney in 1982.
The couple had six children. Their only daughter Anne continues to live in London while Kenneth Dundon jnr is said to have no involvement in crime.
But father Kenneth Snr has a long history of criminal activity in the city.
In 2003, his details were posted on Scotland Yard’s most wanted list and a European Bench warrant was put out for his arrest after a 50-year-old heroin addict, Christopher Jacobs, who was an having an affair with Dundon’s estranged wife, was repeatedly stabbed in the face and upper body in 2003.
Kenneth Dundon later pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter and served a six-year prison sentence.
His sons Wayne, Dessie, and Ger, are now all behind bars, joined in August 2013 by John who was ordered to serve a life sentence in Portlaoise Prison.
