How Gerard Cervi learned to shoot at New York gun range weeks before Bobby Messett murder

The Sunday World can reveal how the 36-year-old travelled to a New York shooting range to get firearms training months before carrying out the contract killing.

Cervi was completely unknown to gardaí for any involvement in organised criminal activity before he shot Robert ‘Bobby’ Messett (50) dead at Bray ­Boxing Club, Co Wicklow, on June 5, 2018.

Gardaí have not been able to establish the exact motive for the murder, but they do not believe that Mr Messett, who died from a single gunshot wound to the head, was the intended target.

Last Friday, Cervi was acquitted by the Central Criminal Court jury of attempting to murder boxing coach Pete Taylor and a third man, Ian Britton, who were also shot during the gun attack at the early-morning gym class.

Investigations have established a number of revelations, including that Cervi was paid €20,000 to carry out the shooting by an unknown criminal.

Senior sources say that Cervi was under “severe financial pressure” when he travelled from his north inner city home in Dublin to Co Wicklow to carry out the shooting.

‘He was an absolute amateur when it came to carrying out a crime of this magnitude and was identified pretty quickly’

One line of inquiry was whether Cervi was desperate for cash in order to support a close acquaintance, who lived beyond their means. Gardaí also investigated whether a significant cocaine debt was a motive for the contract killing.

However, the “gangland nobody” completely botched the job after failing to burn out the Volkswagen Caddy van he used to drive to and from the shooting.

Cervi had been observed on CCTV driving the van on a number of occasions around the East Wall area of Dublin in the weeks before the murder.

“He was an absolute amateur when it came to carrying out a crime of this magnitude and was identified pretty quickly,” said a source.

When gardaí examined the killer’s phone, they discovered a video he recorded of himself at a New York shooting range weeks earlier, learning how to shoot with a handgun.

When the video was played to Cervi in Bray garda station, after his arrest in September 2018, it’s understood some present were startled at how loud the gunshots were.

Cervi’s deceased older brother Martin Cervi, who had a far bigger criminal pedigree, was once pictured posing with a firearm during a separate trip to the US.

Considered a major drugs trafficker, Martin Cervi was strongly linked to both the Hutch and Kinahan organised crime gangs and was friends with senior members of both mobs.

Martin Cervi died, aged 39, of a suspected drugs overdose in the Netherlands in 2016, just as the feud between his former close associates was kicking off.

He was a well-known ecstasy importer and was a suspect in the seizure of £3.4m (€4.3m) of drugs in Tallaght in November 1997, as well as £40,000 in cash (€50,000).

“What is pretty much certain is that Gerard never had access to the amounts of drugs and cash that Martin had control of over the years before his death,” a source said.

“Gerard is a loser, for want of a better word. As soon as he was arrested in September 2018, the windows of his home were smashed in as a warning to keep his mouth shut while in garda custody.”

Gerard Cervi refused to co-operate with officers but he has been far from a quiet, subdued inmate behind bars.

‘He is prone to bursts of anger and is not doing his time quietly at all. He has been a very troublesome inmate’

He spent five years and two months in Cloverhill Prison, making him the longest-serving prisoner on remand in the history of the State.

He has been served with 20 P-19 disciplinary reports and has been sanctioned for serious rule breaches, including damaging prison property, mostly items in his own cell such as TVs and kettles.

Cervi has also been disciplined for being caught with an illegal mobile phone and other contraband as well as threatening and verbally abusing prison staff.

“He is prone to bursts of anger and is not doing his time quietly at all. He has been a very troublesome inmate who has had to be moved to different landings on occasion within Cloverhill,” said a source.

A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) said they “do not comment on individual prisoner cases”.

The garda probe into the Bray Boxing Club murder established that Cervi had flown to Malaga three times in three months after the murder.

When Cervi was arrested at a property in Bundoran, Co Donegal, in September 2018, he was in possession of a “one-way” ticket for a fourth trip to Malaga.

Gardaí had earlier enlisted the help of the PSNI, who had tracked the killer’s movements after he got off a flight from Spain in Belfast and then travelled across the Border, where he was arrested by armed officers on the night of September 6, 2018.