Under-threat pals of slain IRA boss Alan Ryan in 'shoot to kill' photo Pal of slain RIRA boss Alan Ryan and murder accused pose for 'gun' picture
A pal of slain Real IRA boss Alan Ryan posted the words "Shoot to kill" along with a photo of himself and another man posing with replica guns online.
The pair in the picture are Derek Nolan and Dean Evans, who are both under threat of death from the drugs mob who murdered their close friend Ryan almost three years ago. Evans (25) uploaded the image on his Facebook page. The pair look like they do not have a care in the world as they celebrate Evans' birthday by taking part in an airsoft gun session. Menaces Nolan (32), from Baldoyle, was rarely far from Ryan's side. That has made him an target for the "Mr Big" drugs mob who gunned down his pal in September 2012. The heavily tattooed north Dubliner previously faced criminal charges. He had been accused along with his friend John Stokes (56) - the father of Celtic footballer Anthony Stokes - of demanding with menaces that Shane Simpson close the Castle Inn pub in Summerhill, north Dublin, "within 24 hours" on March 13, 2011. Both men pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was dropped at Dublin Circuit Court in April last year. However, criminal charges against Raheny man Evans are still ongoing. He is due to face murder charges in the Special Criminal Court in 2017. Evans and two other men are charged with the murder of Peter Butterly in the car park of a pub in Gormanston, Co Meath, on March 6, 2013. Their 55-day-long trial collapsed at the Special Criminal Court last January after a failure in evidence disclosure. At a bail hearing before the High Court in February, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said "justice demands" that bail be granted to Evans despite objections by senior gardai. Evans had been in custody in the high-security Portlaoise Prison since his arrest in March 2013. Mr Justice Moriarty said the retrial had been fixed for the Special Criminal Court in January 2017. He said evidence given by two senior gardai, including Supt Alf Martyn, was "quite chilling". Not only that, the judge said, but their evidence amounted to a very strong case against Evans. Mr Justice Moriarty said the proposed retrial meant that another two years in custody would be visited on the accused. As a result, he would have served four years in custody before the case proceeds, he said. That did not accord with the norms of constitutional justice. Mr Justice Moriarty said their continued detention based on the evidence of gardai would amount to preventative detention when they still enjoyed a presumption of innocence. Sureties of €20,000 for Evans and one of his co-accused were presented in court. Curfew Mr Justice Moriarty said both men undertook to abide by a curfew, to sign on daily at garda stations, to provide mobile phone numbers to gardai and to keep those devices switched on at all times. If there was any breach of the terms, the judge said he would require the matter to come back before him. Evans' brother, Darragh, was cleared, along with Ryan's younger brother Vincent Ryan, in October 2013 of possessing an assault rifle and a handgun by direction of the Special Criminal Court. In March of last year, the Herald disclosed that Darragh Evans was threatened with a hand gun by "Mr Big" in a bizarre incident in the Dolphin's Barn area of the capital, but no charges have aris
