Meath man jailed for threatening to kill
A Meath man has been jailed for six years for threatening to kill someone who “owed money” for drugs.
Ciaran Dixon (aged 25) was acting on behalf of the dealers to try to recover a €15,000 “debt” run up by Colm Kelly who he had met at a party and introduced to the criminals when he said he wanted drugs.
He told Ms Lisa Kelly he would put a drillbit in her brother's head and two bullets in her mother's head unless she told him where he was.
Detective Garda Patrick Traynor said Mr Kelly's mother, Ms Linda Killock, eventually raised €17,000 to pay off her son's “debt” to the criminals after her car was burned out.
Dixon of Beech Grove, Johnstown, Navan told his defence counsel, Mr John Peart SC, he had missed his October 31, 2007 scheduled trial date on these matters because he had to leave the jurisdiction for his own safety after the “drugs barons” kidnapped his brother, Mark Dixon, in connection with the debt.
His brother was eventually rescued by the Garda Emergency Response Unit who tracked him down using mobile phone signals.
Dixon said the dealers were holding him responsible for the “debt” as he had introduced Mr Kelly to them.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to issuing threats to the Kellys and Ms Killock and also admitted possession of two shotgun cartridges found during a garda search of his home.
Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed two concurrent sentences of six years and one each of five and three years for the various offences and backdated the sentence from last January.
Dixon told Mr Peart he was “off his head” when he met Mr Kelly who soon ran up a large “debt” which he refused to pay. The criminals then threatened to kill him if he didn't retrieve the money from Mr Kelly.
“They had already committed murders in the area so I knew the threat was real. They had done more for less,” he told Mr Peart.
He said that even though he was in custody he was still in fear of the drug dealers: “I'm in there with murders and rapists and I'm on protection because I'm not sure if these people have forgotten about it.”
Mr Peart said Dixon had involved himself with some “very nefarious people” and “was not in any way a large cog in drug trafficking.
Det Gda Traynor told prosecuting counsel, Mr Sean Guerin BL, that Dixon and another man called to Ms Killock's home at Delwood rise, Castleknock on April 2, 2006 .
Dixon demanded that Ms Killock and Ms Kelly tell him where Colm Kelly was, saying: “Help us find him. If you don't I'll destroy your house ....... I'm €15,000 down, I'll need that money, I'll get it any way I can.”
Det Gda Traynor said he pointed something from inside his pocket at Ms Kelly and said: “See that in my pocket, there's two bullets in that for your mother's head.”
Dixon also produced a drillbit and said it was for her brother's head. He threatened to shoot her in the leg and come back to “wreck the house” before he and his accomplice left.
Det Gda Traynor said Ms Killock's car was burned out later in April 2006 but Dixon was not accused of this despite gardai finding a text message on his phone stating her address and make of car.
Ms Killock received a text message from Dixon on May 3, 2006, reading: “Please don't make me burn your house down.” He said he'd give them a week “before your house will go up in smoke” to pay the “debt”.
Det Gda Traynor said gardaí called to Dixon's home the next day and a found two Remington shotgun shells, an air pistol and several phones.
He admitted he had threatened Ms Killock and Ms Kelly with the air pistol but maintained the threats weren't genuine and said: “I have never done this sort of thing before.”
When gardaí asked him about the people he was acting for, Dixon replied: “If I told you that I would be in fear of my life myself.”
