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Pictured is Bobby Messett, innocent victim of the Bray Boxing Club shooting. RollingNews.ie

Boxing club shooting: Bray gardaí believe they lack a vital piece of evidence

Six weeks on from the fatal attack, gardaí believe they still lack some important info.

GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING THE murder of Bobby Messett at Bray Boxing Club earlier this year are making “slow but steady” progress but believe there is someone out there who has information which could result in the innocent father’s killer being brought to justice.

Gardaí in Bray have drawn up a list of people of interest who they believe could have potentially carried out the June attack which left Messett (50) dead and injured two others including boxing coach Pete Taylor, who runs the club.

Following Taylor’s release from hospital, he travelled to Belfast before returning to Wicklow. He has been told by gardaí that his life was at risk.

Gardaí are investigating whether Taylor was the target of the shooting, and are still trying to establish a definitive motive for the attack.

Officers working the case believe that they have not yet received all the evidence they need – including photos and videos taken by people at the gym and those outside it in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

They have asked people who were there on the morning of the shooting to provide them with those phone photos and clips.

They believe a number of people also know the identity of the killer.

Debt

Gardaí have widened the scope of their investigation and are probing whether it may have been commissioned due to an unpaid debt owed by someone who frequented the gym, rather than in response to a personal grudge. Officers had been investigating the latter in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Another avenue of investigation is that a gunman linked to a deceased associate of the Kinahan cartel was the person who pulled the trigger. This theory is being investigated with the help of national units.

Gardaí are also investigated if this shooting was anything to do with the Kinahan/Hutch feud. Taylor has previously trained boxers linked to MTK Global, a boxing management company part-founded by drug trafficker Daniel Kinahan.

A statement released by MTK earlier this year said it had “cut all ties with Mr Kinahan in February 2017″.

There is no suggestion Pete Taylor is involved in any form of criminality.

Around the time of the shooting, gardaí had been carrying out surveillance on a number of people they suspected of moving significant quantities of cocaine across north Wicklow and south Dublin.

Detectives are also probing the activities of a convicted killer who has started to operate in the drug trade locally. The man is also believed to be involved in a violent debt collection business.

There is no suggestion that anyone present at the time of the shooting was, in any way, involved in any form of criminal activity.

Separately, the family of Bobby Messett last week launched a petition in a bid to keep the boxing club closed due to safety concerns.

Their message on social media read:

This petition has been set up to keep Bray Boxing Club closed until the garda investigation is complete. This has been requested by the family of the late Bobby Messett, in the interest of public safety.
Five weeks ago Bobby was murdered in Bray boxing gym. We know that he was not the target of this attack and until the garda investigation is completed we feel it is not a safe place for any member of the public to be at this time. We feel it should be reopened after the investigation as it is a community facility , but for now we believe it is not safe.

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Oct 18th 2021, 6:59 PM

    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was Sean Connery’s final film role, and it’s worth watching by mere virtue of having him in it in his last outing. The other reason is that it’s an Alan Moore story, and even though Moore disowned it as he disowned all Hollywood productions of his work after having signed away his rights as a young writer, a mistake countless others in other arts made too, his stories even if flawed reproductions of the original graphic novels are usually still worth it (other examples being V for Vendetta and Watchmen).

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:25 PM

    @Mick Tobin: I watched this a few years back, wouldn’t want to see it again. Long before the end I had lost interest. I seem to remember reading that Connery stopped making movies as a result of this film.

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:35 PM

    @Bert Carolan: Yes, here it is: https://screenrant.com/sean-connery-league-extraordinary-gentlemen-hated-why/ – but much of that had to do with delays concerning the weather, and over-sensitivity on the director’s part about how realistic some of the props were.

    If that’s what caused Connery to withdraw from acting, so be it, but it seems to me it had more to do with the circumstances of the production than with the eventual result, but allegedly Sir Sean did go into the editing room to help edit the final cut as he wasn’t satisfied.

    He said the director should’ve been arrested for insanity, but still, that doesn’t make it a film not worth watching. I enjoyed it sufficiently to watch it till the end, but if you couldn’t, well fair enough.

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    Mute Matthew Doyle
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:45 PM

    There should be a pour bleach in me eye’s section because film and TV at the moment is terrible

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    Mute Gordon Larney
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:59 PM

    @Matthew Doyle: in your opinion…

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    Mute Philip Mckenna
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    Oct 18th 2021, 10:42 PM

    @Matthew Doyle: I agree, full of ghastly horrendous remakes and superhero movies, shocking time for films

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Oct 18th 2021, 8:04 PM

    What a transformation Matthew McConaughey made to his career. Was a run of the mill rom com guy and became an acting giant! Similar to Tom Hanks after his more goofy roles in the 80s.

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    Mute bob hope
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    Oct 18th 2021, 10:18 PM

    Deadpool!

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