A Dublin man was jailed for 12 years yesterday for falsely imprisoning a drug dealer who was murdered in a gangland killing in 1996.
Jeremy Cooper (29), of Dunne Street, Dublin, had pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to the false imprisonment of Mr Mark Dwyer (23) at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, on December 14th, 1996. Mr Dwyer's body was found in a field in Finglas.
Mr Justice Kinlen told Cooper he had pleaded guilty to "a very serious charge" and had 22 previous convictions.
"You have been involved in some violence, and in this particular case you were involved in the abduction and false imprisonment of a person who was tortured and ultimately died," he added.
He sentenced Cooper to 12 years' imprisonment to start from the date of his release after a previous sentence - July 28th last year. A father and son, Joe and Scott Delaney, are serving life sentences after they were convicted of Mr Dwyer's murder in separate trials in 1997 and in April this year.
Mr Mark Dwyer was abducted and beaten after being blamed for the disappearance of 40,000 ecstasy tablets imported by the Delaney gang. His body was found in a field in Scribblestown Lane, Finglas, with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Det Sgt Gerry McDonnell t old Mr Justice Kinlen that Cooper was engaged by Scott Delaney, through another man, to be part of the kidnap gang.
The court heard that Cooper, who is 30 this month, had 22 convictions between 1983 and 1997. His last was three months for possession of drugs. The judge heard that Cooper recently pleaded guilty to another case of false imprisonment involving a cigarette vendor in Clonmel. The businessman and his family were put in a strongroom and held for 18 hours by three armed and masked men, one of whom was Cooper. His two co-accused were sentenced to 10 and eight years respectively. Cooper is awaiting sentence.