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Regency Hotel ‘Flat Cap' suspect flees Strabane home

Strabane man Mickey Barr was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in north Dublin
Strabane man Mickey Barr was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in north Dublin Strabane man Mickey Barr was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in north Dublin

THE Regency Hotel shooting suspect known as 'Flat Cap' has fled his Co Tyrone home.

The man is understood to have left the rented property in Strabane amid fears he could be targeted by the Dublin crime gang which murdered Mickey Barr on Monday.

The house and another property in the border town were searched by the PSNI last week.

A former republican prisoner, the man has been linked to Republican Action Against Drugs and was previously acquitted of taking part in a 'knee-capping'.

Until recent weeks he had been living openly in the town despite being linked to the gun attack which claimed the life of Dubliner David Byrne in the city's Regency Hotel in February.

One of the armed gang which fled the hotel was pictured wearing a flat cap.

The murder of close associate Mickey Barr at a pub in Dublin, the latest victim of the Kinahan-Hutch gangland war, is believed to have prompted the man to go to ground.

The ‘IRA’ this week confirmed the victim was a member but said he was not involved in the feud and its weapons were not used in the Regency attack.