A Dublin businessman has been jailed for three years at the Special Criminal Court for his part in a violent gang confrontation during which a Belfast INLA man, Patrick Campbell, died.
The confrontation was between a Dublin criminal gang and a gang linked to the INLA. The court was told that during the confrontation the INLA group stripped, beat and interrogated members of the criminal gang, and threatened to shoot them.
John Creed (30), a father of three, of Kiltalown Green, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning four men at Ballymount Road Industrial Estate, Walkinstown, Dublin, on October 6th last year.
Prosecuting counsel Mr George Birmingham SC said that a wellknown Dublin criminal had approached Creed for £600 compensation after Creed's teenage brother burned a curtain on a van belonging to the criminal.
Creed made contact with a group associated with the INLA, who hid themselves in the office of the unit at Ballymount Industrial Estate, where Creed was a partner in a glazing firm.
When six men associated with the Dublin criminal arrived at the industrial estate armed with a machete, knuckleduster and sword, Creed gave a signal and the INLA gang attacked the six, stripping them, beating them and binding their hands and feet. They also threatened to shoot the six and ordered them to leave the State within 24 hours.
A group of 12 men associated with the criminal then came on the scene and attacked the INLA group. In the confrontation which followed, Patrick Campbell, who was associated with the INLA group, died.
Mr Justice O'Donovan, presiding, sentenced Creed to five years' imprisonment, but suspended the final two years of the sentence.