CRIME RACKET | Associates of Regency Hotel getaway driver Paul Murphy ran Dublin’s vice trade
In a bizarre twist we can reveal Murphy’s associates even used a hotel room in the Regency Hotel in the mid 1990s for prostitution business.
Ken Foy
Today at 09:51
Close associates of convicted Regency Hotel getaway driver Paul Murphy were previously involved in organised prostitution rackets in the capital.
In a bizarre twist we can reveal that his close associates even used a hotel room in the Regency Hotel in the mid 1990s as part of their brothel keeping business.
Senior sources say that this organised criminal activity happened without the knowledge of the owners or management of the Whitehall hotel which was then known as the Crofton Airport Hotel.
Paul Murphy is a long term pal of ‘The Monk’ and has 67 previous convictions which include public order offences, road traffic offences, larceny and criminal damage.
Mr Murphy, the Special Criminal Court heard yesterday, had changed his name by deed poll from Christopher Ryan to Paul Murphy in 1987.
He was based in the Smithfield area of the city at the time and was involved in numerous fraud scams including mortgage fraud as well as legitimately selling items such as imported cigarette lighters and phone accessories in the 1990s.
“He changed his name for his own reasons – he did it to try and hide some of the previous convictions he had at that time,” a senior source said.
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“Ryan as he was known at the time was heavily involved in crime in the city during the 1980s and into the 1990s.
“His close associates had control over a number of brothels at the time – these included in the capital’s quays area but also in Christchurch and other inner-city locations.
“Prostitution was a very different activity in those days before the internet and hotel rooms would often be used by the organisers of the crime and strangely the old Regency Hotel on the northside was somewhere that this gang used,” the source explained.
“Despite his criminal credentials, Ryan (AKA Paul Murphy) was always an affable type of person and was never short of a good chat when he came across gardai,” another source recalled.
“At one stage he was heavily involved in the importation of fireworks into the country and he was always someone who had good knowledge of the activities of the Provisional IRA at the time, not that he was a member of that organisation.
“At his age now, jail will be tough for him,” that source added.
The Irish Independent previously disclosed that getaway drivers Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney are now languishing in the same jail isolation unit that their friend Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch spent almost 19 months on in remand while facing trial.
It is the 3G wing landing of Wheatfield Prison – the so-called ‘Hutch’ wing – a high security area where they are separated from other inmates because of the perceived threat from the Kinahan cartel for their involvement in the murder of gangster David Byrne.
The 3G Wing was the same jail landing that Jonathan Dowdall once shared with his one-time- friend ‘The Monk’ before he asked to become a State witness and gave evidence which was deemed unreliable by the Special Criminal Court.
Delivering judgement at the non-jury court on April 17th, Ms Justice Burns sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Grainne Malone agreed with the State’s case that Murphy’s silver Toyota Avensis taxi and Bonney's black BMW X5 jeep were part of a convoy of six cars that parked up at St Vincent's GAA club grounds in Marino in north Dublin before the Regency shooting on the afternoon of February 5th, 2016 and had then each transported one of the hit men from St Vincent's GAA car park.
Murphy parked up at the Beachcomber pub in Killester that afternoon before “following” Bonney’s jeep as it passed, with both joining four other cars in a convoy that went to St Vincent’s GAA club grounds in Marino.
Paul Murphy was described in court yesterday as operating at the lower end of the scale while other people were higher up in the criminal organisation.
The father of five has 67 previous convictions mainly for minor offences such as road traffic, larceny, public order and criminal damage.
The 61-year-old is originally from Sean McDermott Street in Dublin and was a private in the army for 20 years before working in hotels, shops, hotels, pubs, security, the court heard.
Murphy applied for his taxi licence in 1994 and has worked in the business since then.
Not any more.
