Man gets six years for 'barging' into Dublin house
A 43-year-old man who barged into a house and threatened a woman and her three children with a firearm has been sentenced to six years imprisonment by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
John O'Hanlon, of Millwood Villas Kilbarrack, walked into a garda station in June 2007 and admitted the offence which had taken place four years earlier. He pleaded guilty to possession of a 0.22 calibre rifle at an address in Kilbarrack on April 7, 2003.
Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended the final 18 months of the six year sentence and said that the crime had been committed in the most dramatic of circumstances .
O'Hanlon had 22 previous convictions and had recently been released from an eight-year prison sentence when entered the family s home at around 2.30am.
Detective Sergeant Paul Scott told the court that O'Hanlon barged into the house and shouted that he would shoot the woman s husband if he came down the stairs. O'Hanlon was drunk and accused the husband of robbing his mother s house.
The three children in the house realised what was going on and were crying on the stairs and the woman pleaded with him not to hurt them as O'Hanlon made his threats.
Judge Delahunt noted that the woman, who knew O'Hanlon, managed to calm him down and he expressed remorse before leaving the house. However, he held the gun in the air and fired a shot during the incident.
Conor Devally SC, defending, said that his client had spent an inordinate amount of his life in prison and had little education. He had dumped the weapon at the time but tried unsuccessfully to help garda find it following his admissions.
