John Traynor (criminal)

John Traynor
Born	1948 (age 68–69) Dublin, Ireland
Other names	The Coach
Criminal penalty	Bearer bond fraud, UK: 7 years Prostitution, Ireland Drug smuggling, Money laundering, Ireland: confiscation of assets
Criminal status	Served remainder of sentence and released from Highpoint Prison in September 2012

John "The Coach" Traynor (born 1948) is an Irish criminal. Traynor was one of the contacts in the criminal world for murdered Irish journalist Veronica Guerin.

Traynor is suspected of being a central and important figure in the Dublin gangland, and had associations with the Irish National Liberation Army.

He initially worked with Martin Cahill's gang, and eventually owned a derelict shop building that Cahill formerly owned, in Arbour Hill. During the Garda Síochána investigation into Cahill's 1986 theft of the Beit-collection paintings from Russborough House, Blessington, County Wicklow, detectives believed that the paintings were stored for a period at Arbour Hill.

Transferring his alligence to fellow former-Cahill gang member John Gilligan, he also associated with Gilligan gang-members Brian Meehan and Patrick Holland.

In 1992, he was arrested and convicted in England for his involvement in a scam involving bearer bonds. Jailed for seven years at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk, Traynor was granted compassionate leave to visit his wife and children in Templeogue, but never returned. Authorities in the UK eventually issued an international arrest warrant against Traynor.

Having returned to Gilligan's gang in Dublin, and building up his prostitution business based from a massage parlour in Dublin, Traynor became a confidential source for journalist Veronica Guerin. On 30 January 1995, Traynor hired a gunman to shoot her in the leg at her home. At the time of her murder in 1996, Traynor was seeking a High Court order against Guerin, to prevent her from publishing a book about his involvement in organised crime.

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