Gangland killer Brian Rattigan fled Ireland just days after his release from Ireland’s top security prison, gardai believe.
Sources have told The Mirror that officers have established that the former gang boss booked a ferry ticket to Britain for August 6 - just three days after he walked free from Portlaoise Prison in Co Laois.
“It was a one-way ticket and there has been no sign of him since. We believe he’s gone,” a source said last night.
It’s understood Rattigan, who served 18 years behind bars for a gangland killing as well as for running a drugs operation from his prison cell, was only observed by gardai in his home patch of Crumlin on the night of his release – August 3.
Since then, he has not been spotted by any gardai and officers believe he did take the ferry three days later.
“We can’t prove he took the ferry because nobody actually saw him get on board, but all the indications are that he did and is gone.
“And it was a one-way ticket and he has not bought a return fare since.
“So we do believe he has gone to Britain.”
Rattigan (41) walked out of Portlaoise Prison just after 6.30am two weeks ago on August 3 and was promptly driven away in a hired car.
He left with his face covered and wearing a medal around his neck with a photograph of his brother Joey, killed in a shooting in the summer of 2002.
It’s believed he went to his home address in the Cooley Road area of Drimnagh in south Dublin – but he has not been seen since.
Sources have told The Mirror that gardai do not believe there is any active threat against the killer – who was once involved in one of Ireland’s bloodiest feuds.
That feud, that saw Joey murdered by the rival gang led by Kinahan mobster Fat Freddie Thompson (40), has now died down and sources say detectives do not believe he is at risk from his former enemies.
And officers do not believe Rattigan fled Ireland over worries about his own safety.
One source said last night: “He might have just wanted to get away from all the publicity surrounding him. Or maybe he wanted to make a new start in Britain, away from his old haunts.
“There was a suspicion that he was planning to get out of Ireland for good after his release, and maybe that is what has happened. It is all up in the air.”
Rattigan was locked up in 2003 after he was arrested over the killing in August 2001 of rival Declan Gavin - the first murder in the deadly Crumlin cocaine war that claimed 15 lives in the noughties.
He was found guilty of Mr Gavin's murder in 2009, but that conviction was later overturned on appeal.
He subsequently pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and that saw him receive a nine year jail term, but he was also hit with a 17-year sentence after he was convicted of masterminding a €1 million heroin shipment to Ireland – from inside Portlaoise Prison.
Rattigan, whose last address was in Cooley Road, Drimnagh, south Dublin, says he has become a changed man in prison – but gardai are sceptical of that.
Sources told The Mirror they did not believe Rattigan was in any danger from the Kinahan gang, even though Thompson and he fought their own bloody feud.
