A MAN WHO has survived attempts on his life has been given a seven-year sentence for possession of a gun, drugs and cash he was forced to hold for a west city criminal.
Jason Kirwan (22) was forced to move home and live elsewhere under an assumed name because of what Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told was “a very realistic threat” to his life.
The court heard that Kirwan was not being paid to hold a sawn-off shotgun, cocaine, cannabis herb, ecstasy tablets and cash and had had his face and body slashed as a result of gardaí finding the illegal items in a wardrobe.
Aileen Donnelly, defending, told Judge Delahunt that her client had suffered two very serious assaults on his life and his family had also been threatened.
Kirwan pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a shotgun, of possessing 726 ecstasy tablets with a street value of €7,260, cannabis herb valued €12,000; cocaine valued €14,000 and €4,130 in cash at St Killian’s Park, Clondalkin, Dublin.
Judge Delahunt said she was satisfied that there were sufficient grounds for her not to impose the presumptive 10-year minimum sentence which, she said, would be unfair in the circumstances outlined in the Garda evidence and in “testimonials which are very supportive of you”.
However, she said: “You have endangered not only yourself but also your family which is something you now regret.”
Judge Delahunt suspended the final year of the seven-year sentence.