FOUR DUBLIN men who have become the first to be prosecuted under tough new anti-gangland legislation are to face trial, a court heard yesterday.
The men are charged with organised crime activities in connection with a foiled post office robbery in Drumcondra, in north Dublin, last October.
David Atkinson (41), of Windmill Park, Crumlin; Dwayne Stacey (22), South Circular Road; Philip Kerfoot (38), Ross Road, Dublin 8, and Gerard Carey (33), Kildare Road, Crumlin, were before Cloverhill District Court yesterday.
Det Mark O’Riordain of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told Judge Eamon O’Brien the DPP had directed trial by indictment for the four defendants, who were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, May 12th last.
The four men were remanded in custody on that date after they had been charged under the Criminal Justice Amendment Act 2009, that, between the dates of July 23rd and October 16th last year, knowing of the existence of a criminal organisation, they did participate in activity with intent to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that organisation or its members.
Mr Stacey and Mr Kerfoot were also charged with conspiracy to commit robbery at Drumcondra Post Office on October 16th.
Their co-defendants had been charged with the same offence at an earlier date.
Yesterday their solicitor, Peter Mullan, requested an adjournment of the case until May 27th, when a book of evidence is to be served.
There was no application for bail. Judge O’Brien remanded all four in custody until that date, when they are due to appear at Dublin District Court at the Criminal Courts of Justice.
The new anti-gangland legislation was introduced in the aftermath of the killing of rugby player Shane Geoghegan and the fatal shooting of Roy Collins at his family’s business, both in Limerick.
On conviction it can carry a 15-year sentence.