There was cheering and clapping in the Special Criminal Court yesterday when two Dublin men were jailed for their part in a vigilante-style attack on two drug addicts which left one of them dead.
Mr Josie Dwyer died after the assault and his friend, Mr Alan Byrne, was injured in the attack, which followed a meeting of Concerned Parents Against Drugs in Dolphin's Barn, Dublin.
Ronald Byrne and Stephen Carney pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Alan Byrne (26), of Basin Street Flats, Dublin, occasioning him actual bodily harm in Dublin on May 14th 1996 and committing violent disorder on the same date.
Charges against the two men of the manslaughter of Mr Dwyer (41) at Basin Lane in Dublin's south inner city were dropped after they changed their pleas and admitted lesser charges on the fifth day of their trial.
Byrne (40), of Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, and Carney (24), of Dolphin House, Rialto, were each jailed for 20 months on the assault and disorder charges. The court ordered Byrne's sentence to date from yesterday and Carney's to follow an eight-year sentence he is already serving.
Det Insp Declan Coburn told the court that Carney was currently serving an eight-year sentence for his part in the attempted robbery of a security van outside Ashford, Co Wicklow, in May 1998, when gardai shot dead a member of the "Real IRA".
The crowded public gallery burst into applause as the two men were being escorted from the dock. The men waved back at people in the gallery.
Members of COCAD (Coalition of Communities Against Drugs) picketed the Green Street courthouse during yesterday's hearing.
The court heard that Mr Dwyer, who was HIV-positive and a heroin addict, and Mr Byrne, also a heroin addict, were attacked at three locations after the anti-drugs meeting in Dolphin's Barn.
Sentencing the two men, Mr Justice Johnson, presiding, said that the events arose following a meeting of Concerned Parents Against Drugs in Dolphin's Barn, which Carney had co-chaired and in which the other defendant, Byrne, had been prominent.
The court was satisfied that the meeting took place when the drugs problem in the area was at its height. It had also accepted the "graphic evidence" of Independent TD Mr Tony Gregory and Sister Elizabeth O'Brien of the "terrible devastation caused to this community by the appalling heroin epidemic at that time".
Following the meeting, a number of people were approached and told to leave the area. In two cases people were manhandled and in one case drugs were taken from a teenager.
The court accepted that Mr Dwyer and Mr Byrne were "active drug users" at the time. It was satisfied also that the two accused men had "acted in concert" with the group which took part in the assaults on Mr Byrne and Mr Dwyer at three locations - the ice rink at Dolphin's Barn, Fatima Mansions and Basin Lane.
The judge said that Mr Dwyer and Mr Byrne were trapped in a "pincer movement" at Fatima Mansions and that weapons were taken from the boot of one of two cars which were blocking their path. The court "could not condone the mob violence which occurred that evening".
Mr Justice Johnson said the fact that weapons used in the assault on Mr Dwyer and Mr Byrne had been taken from the boot of one of the cars blocking them at Fatima Mansions showed that the attack was not spontaneous.
The court accepted that Mr Dwyer suffered from an enlarged spleen due to his medical condition. It was accepted also that his injuries were not consistent with a severe beating. However, the offences were "most serious". The two accused men had taken a prominent part in activities which could only be described as a "vigilante mob". The judge added: "This cannot be tolerated in a democratic society."
The court was told that two other men were jailed for 20 months by the Circuit Criminal Court for their part in the assault.