A brother of murdered Limerick gangland victim Frankie Ryan has been jailed for four years for robbing a pizza delivery man with a semi-automatic shotgun.
John Ryan (28), Delmege Park, Moyross, Limerick, threatened the Domino's Pizza employee with a Browning semi-automatic shotgun before robbing him of two pizzas.
Earlier this year Ryan pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to having the weapon in his possession for an unlawful purpose on November 29th last at Delmege Park, Moyross.
The 28-year-old also pleaded guilty to a charge of robbing Andriy Koualov of two pizzas worth €44 on the same date.
At the sentencing hearing yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran was told that Ryan had the pump-action shotgun "for his own protection".
The court heard there had been a serious escalation of feud-related violence in Moyross about the time of the incident and that Ryan's father's home had been shot at and petrol-bombed.
Insp Seamus Nolan told the court that, besides Ryan's father, Ryan was the "last man standing in his family" as his brother Frankie Ryan had been murdered the previous September and two of his other brothers were in custody on feud-related matters.
The court heard that the defendant pointed a semi-automatic shotgun at Domino's Pizza employee Andriy Koulav when he arrived to deliver two pizzas to Delmege Park.
Ryan, who had ordered the pizzas with his own mobile phone, told Mr Koulav to place the pizzas on the ground.
Mr Koulov was "anxious and nervous" when he saw the gun but it took about 15 minutes after he had left the scene before he "realised the enormity of what he had faced", the court heard.
Judge Moran said that it was fortunate that the employee was "a robust young man" who had not been adversely affected by an experience that another person might have found "quite traumatic".
Judge Moran said he accepted the robbery was not feud-related but that the accused had acquired the weapon because of the escalation of feud-related crime, in particular the murder of his brother Frankie.
The judge noted that Ryan had pleaded guilty but said he had to take a harsh view of the use of a firearm in a robbery, "no matter how stupid", and sentenced Ryan to four years in prison.