A TEENAGER who had a sawn off shotgun in the Garryowen area, but didn’t know it was loaded, walked free from Limerick Circuit Court with a suspended sentence.
The court heard that a gang of youths attached to one of Limerick’s major criminal outfits armed themselves with a loaded semi automatic pump action after they feared they were going to be attacked by a rival gang.
The group congregated in the Garryowen stronghold of the Keane/Collopy gang, fearing that members of the rival McCarthy/Dundon were on the way to attack them, so they armed themselves with an Italian made Lu-Mar 12 gauge shotgun that had both the stock and barrel sawn off.
Sergeant Cathal O’Neill told the court that on October 5, 2008, he was on patrol in the area and noticed the group gathered on the Grennhills Road.
Stating that the group dispersed on noticing the presence of the gardai, Sgt O’Neill said that they pursued members of the gang and noticed the then 19-year-old Christopher Mulqueen, dropping a “stick-like item” into the hedgerow.
Sgt O’Neill said that he followed the accused into a house and apprehended him.
Mulqueen was arrested and questioned, and subsequently charged. The pump action shotgun had three cartridges loaded,
The shotgun was devoid of its stock and barrel and had the serial numbers erased to prevent its true identity being known.
Described as a “low ranking member of the gang”, Mulqueen, now 22, said that he did not know that the gun was loaded and that he was ordered by one of the senior members of the gang, who was alleged to have brought it, to get rid of it after they saw gardai.
It was then that “panic set amongst the group,” and “when the music stopped, Mulqueen was left holding the parcel”, the court heard.
Mulqueen was said not to be a serious criminal and had in fact, removed himself from the network he was in.
His counsel, Andrew Sexton, said that the 21-year-old was soon to be a father and had in fact moved out of the city to distance himself from criminal activity and had not come to the notice of the gardai since.
Mulqueen gave evidence for the State in a recent murder trial heard at the Central Criminal Court, and is now living away from the city with his seven-month pregnant partner.
The court also heard that his mother was forced to leave her home as she was in fear.
It was stated that there was “hope for this person,” and that this hope “did not ordinarily exist”.
The court heard that Mulqueen voluntarily went into custody on February 25 last, despite having been released on bail.
Judge Carroll Moran said that it was a “grave offence,” and a “serious threat to be found in the possession of a firearm in society”.
He added that apart from the seriousness of possessing the weapon, the gun was loaded also, which made the matter more serious.
Stating that Sergeant Cathal O’Neill had been “extremely fair to the accused,” and that Mulqueen was not a major player in the gang, Judge Carroll Moran said he could be credited for distancing himself from criminal activity, as well as giving evidence for the State in a criminal murder case recently.
A co-accused, who is believed to have been the man that brought the gun to the group, has since absconded, therefore leaving Mulqueen to face the charges.
Judge Carroll Moran sentenced Christopher Mulqueen, with a former address at St Munchin’s Court, St Mary’s Park, to three years in prison, but suspended it for a period of three years and bound him to the peace on his own bond of €100
