Man gives evidence in horse 'extortion' trial
The owner of a stolen €80,000 value in-foal mare which was found in a Co Meath field has told a court he handed €6,000 to a man who claimed he could help him recover it from "the scumbags that took it".
Mr David Kelly described at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court how two days after he had posted notices about the missing animal he was contacted by the accused who said he could help him get it back.
"He said he knew the people who had taken her and they weren’t very nice people. He said he didn’t want any harm done to her and he would help me get her back but he said that these people would want money for her," Mr Kelly told prosecuting counsel, Mr Dominic McGinn BL.
Mr Anthony Lea (aged 32) of Fortlawn Avenue, Blanchardstown, has pleaded not guilty to alternative counts of handling or possessing the stolen mare on January 10, 2005.
Mr Kelly said he refused to pay €10,000 that Mr Lea first said the thieves wanted for the mare which was taken from a field at Barberstown Stud, in Clonsilla, but after some negotiations he agreed to pay €6,000.
"He told me they were ‘little scumbags’ and if I didn’t give them the money they could do some damage to her," Mr Kelly said.
A few days later he met with him in a car park in Clonee, after Mr Lea had shown him video of the missing mare the previous day to prove she was "alive and well". He said he gave Mr Lea €3,000 and promised to give him the other €3,000 when he had picked up the mare.
Mr Lea made a phone call and a few minutes later a motorcyclist pulled up and collected the €3,000 before the accused got in Mr Kelly’s car and directed him to where the mare was in a field in Ballivor.
Mr Kelly then gave him the second €3,000 and when they returned to the spot where they had earlier met a "swarm of gardaí" surrounded Mr Lea.
Mr Kelly said that when the mare first went missing from her grazing field adjacent to Barberstown Stud on December 20, 2004, he contacted gardai.
He called them again when Mr Lea phoned him for the first time and he later made them aware of his arrangements to meet the accused to collect the horse.
Mr McGinn earlier told the jury that they would have to decide if Mr Lea was acting dishonestly in helping Mr Kelly get the mare back or if he was really doing it "out of the good of his heart".
Mr Kelly agreed with defence counsel, Mr Derek Cooney BL, that Mr Lea "was straight up" with him and that he used his own car when he met with him, showed him his driving license and didn’t ring him from a blocked number.
He accepted that Mr Lea was civil and wasn’t aggressive during the car journey from Clonee to Ballivor and that he told Mr Lea he would pay €2,000 personally to him, rather than to the thieves, if he helped him get the mare back from "these scumbags".
Mr Kelly further accepted Mr Cooney’s suggestion that he had given permission to Mr Lea to get the horse back and that Mr Lea hadn’t jumped on the back of the motorbike and said "good luck to you" when the first €3,000 was paid over.
The trial continues before Judge Frank O’Donnell and a jury of seven men and five women.
