Eight years for men who shot through living room window
Two men who fired a gunshot through the living room window of a Drimnagh home before speeding off in a car have each been jailed for eight years.
Joseph Redmond (aged 33) and David Roche (aged 26) each pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to unlawfully possessing a firearm and discharging a firearm and being reckless as to whether a person was injured or not at Keeper Road, Drimnagh on April 18, 2009.
Redmond, of Kilworth Road, Drimnagh has 41 previous convictions, including one robbery and minor public order and road traffic matters.
Roche, of Abbotstown Avenue, Finglas, has 20 previous convictions for minor matters at District Court level.
Garda Robert Lambert told Mr Garret Baker BL, prosecuting, that Ms Lisa Clarke had been sitting in her back kitchen with a neighbour at her Keeper Road residence when she heard a loud bang.
Gda Lambert said Ms Clarke saw a hole in the sitting room window seconds later when she went to her front garden to investigate the noise.
The garda said he and a colleague were in the area and about to respond to the incident when they saw a navy Audi A6 speed past them toward Windmill Road.
He told Mr Baker that he heard another gunshot as the car sped up Bunting Road over bollards and onto the wrong side of the road.
Gda Lambert said he saw one object being thrown out of the car’s window at the Cherry Tree Pub and a second object thrown out further down the road.
Gda Lambert said the first object was a .22 inch semi automatic pistol, unloaded, in good condition and functioning normally and the second object was a tea towel.
The garda told Mr Baker that he also recovered cartridge cases at the scene.
He said the car stopped shortly after the tea towel was thrown out because its left side tyres had been burst with the impact from the bollards.
He arrested Roche in the driver’s seat and Redmond on the passenger side.
Gda Lambert agreed with Mr Bernard Condon SC, defending Redmond, that his client had not been disruptive on arrest and did not seek to slow down the court proceedings against him on this matter.
Gda Lambert agreed with Mr Sean Gillane SC, defending Roche, that his client had faced “challenges” in his young life as his father was well known to gardaí.
Mr Gillane submitted to Judge Katherine Delahunt that it was “not unremarkable” that his client has come before her given his father’s “malign and violent influence” when he was growing up.
Mr Condon submitted that his client, a father-of-three, had caused no “road blocks” in getting his case heard in court, that he had been co-operative and had entered an early guilty plea.
Judge Delahunt said she considered a custodial sentence appropriate in each case given the serious nature of the charges.
