A DRUGS baron once accused of killing Irish journalist Veronica Guerin was convicted yesterday of masterminding a £10 million "honey-trap" kidnap plot.
Patrick "Dutchy" Holland, who has always denied any involvement in the 1996 assassination of Ms Guerin, was secretly filmed and recorded planning to abduct a businessman and demand a ransom.
London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard that at the hea
rt of the scheme was a 24-year-old woman used as "sex bait".
Posing as a work-hungry secretary, she was supposed to get a job at the would-be victim's company, then lure him "to the slaughterhouse".
But the enterprise fell at the first hurdle when the apparently eager job applicant was told there were no vacancies.
Before they could come up with an alternative plan, Holland – who was released in April 2006 after serving nine years for drugs offences – and his four accomplices were arrested.
Holland, 68, of Russett Way, Lewisham, south-east London, was found guilty by a unanimous jury of conspiracy to kidnap Nasir Zahid between 10 March and 2 May last year.
So, too, were Khan Coombs, 24, of no fixed address – the "lure" – and lorry drivers Simon Young, 38, of Central Avenue, Welling, Kent; Gerrard Booth, 47, of Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, Co Down; and John McDonnell, 45, of Russett Way, Lewisham.
Remanding all five in custody, Judge Henry Blacksell, QC, adjourned sentence until 2 May.
Holland, originally from Dublin, is facing his fourth major prison sentence.
In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for an armed robbery in Dublin. Less than a decade later he was sentenced to ten years for possessing explosives, detonators and fuse wire.
In 1997, not long after Ms Guerin was assassinated by a motorcycle pillion passenger, Holland was arrested for possession of 10kg of cannabis resin and jailed. He was released in April 2006 after receiving three years remission on his 12-year sentence – it had already been cut from 20 years on appeal.
Interviewed shortly afterwards, Holland denied any involvement in the shooting of 37-year-old Ms Guerin.
"I haven't killed anybody ever. There is no blood on my hands," he insisted.
Yesterday's verdicts followed a two-month trial featuring a wealth of surveillance evidence, including that showing Holland meeting alleged paymaster, Patrick Van Cantfort, a wealthy European businessman nicknamed "The Banker" who is currently being sought by police.
The court heard that he ordered the kidnapping, apparently believing Mr Zahid had double-crossed him.
Holland – who described himself as a "legal adviser" – was watched by police as Van Cantfort gave him cash for hotel rooms and vehicles needed for the conspiracy.
Christopher Kerr, prosecuting, said as the plan unfolded gang members "staked out" both the home of Mr Zahid in Isleworth, west London, and his import and export company, Tradex Ltd, based in Chiswick.
Mr Kerr told the court that while Holland was "in charge" of the "plan in the UK", McDonnell and Booth – convicted drug traffickers who met in prison – were to "carry out the snatch physically". Young was effectively a go-between.
The court heard that at one point during the police surveillance operation, Coombs was seen climbing into a car and being told by McDonnell that he was going to forge an impressive CV for her.
He was taped telling her: "On Wednesday morning we're going to send you into the office and you're going to try and flirt with this b**tard to see if he'll ask you out – which he will, that's the type of dog he is.
"If he comes out we're going to grab him."
Coombs was then heard planning what to wear and choosing a false name for herself.
McDonnell then said: "If this comes off there's £10 million involved in this job. When you bring him out we can take him to the slaughterhouse."
The court heard how the would-be kidnappers were arrested in a series of co-ordinated armed operations.
Detective Inspector Paul Johnson, of the Metropolitan Police's Special Projects Team, said:
"We can confidently say that London is a safer place with these individuals in jail."
CAMPAIGNER EXECUTED FOR HER CONVICTIONSRENOWNED crime reporter Veronica Guerin was gunned down on the outskirts of Dublin in June 1996.
She was sitting in her car at an intersection on the Naas dual carriageway when one of two men sitting on a motorcycle beside her car shot her five times.
For two years, she had mounted a high-profile war against Ireland's drug barons on the pages of a newspaper.
In November 1998, Dublin drug dealer Paul Ward was convicted of the murder – later overturned on appeal – because he had disposed of the pistol and the motorcycle. Brian Meehan was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. John Gilligan was tried and acquitted. During a separate appearance, he claimed John Traynor was the man who ordered the hit on Ms Guerin. He has never been tried.
The full article contains 835 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
