“IT WAS over my Da. That’s why I shot him”.
That was the response of Jason Freyne as he was jailed for eight years for firing a sawn-off shotgun into a crowd, which included children, outside a house in Limerick last year.
Judge Tom O’Donnell said that the 23-year-old Limerick man, of no fixed abode, was being sentenced for “riding around the streets of Limerick with an adapted shotgun and being prepared to use it”.
During the sentence hearing at Limerick Circuit Court last Friday, Judge O’Donnell heard that Jason Freyne got hold of a single barrelled sawn-off shot gun “with ease” before texting his mother telling her he was sorry and was going on a “rampage”.
On the afternoon of May 9, 2005, Freyne loaded the shotgun, put it in a backpack and cycled to the Hyde Road where he opened fire at a group wounding a 42-year-old man who was hit in the hands and legs.
He rode away on his bike, but was seen cycling on the Condell Road by an off-duty Garda. He was arrested in a laneway near Henry Street Garda Station as he tried to get the gun out of the backpack which also contained a balaclava, gloves and two shotgun cartridges.
He was wearing a bullet proof vest and said his life was under threat.
He said he was shot at the previous day on his way to gym when a man pulled up beside and drew a gun. However he said he shot the man in the face first.
However Gardaí said that this was a total fabrication.
The shotgun Freyne was carrying had the stock shortened and was in good working order. Firearms residue was also found on his clothes.
CCTV footage showed a cyclist leaving the scene after the shooting while Gardaí obtained additional footage taken on mobile phone by a person at the scene.
In his sentencing address, Judge O’Donnell noted that the background of the incident stemmed from a dispute Freyne’s girlfriend had with members of the Casey family.
This had nothing to do with victim, but the feud was running long and deep.
Freyne then interrupted Judge O’Donnell and said “C’mere Tom, I’m involved in no feud or no gang. it was over my Da. That’s why I shot him”.
Continuing his judgement, Judge O’Donnell said that the gun attack was opportunistic and not premeditated but noted the seriousness of firing a gun into a group including children.
“There could have been fatal consequences over the reckless discharge of the gun and the threat to cause carnage in a call to his mother was quite disturbing”.
Freyne, who has a “propensity for violence, showed a lack of planning and a lack of maturity given that the threat to his life was founded on fiction”, Judge O’Donnell said.
Imposing an eight year sentence with the final two and half years suspended, Judge O’Donnell said that it was “alarming that he thought it was appropriate to be riding around Limerick with an adapted shotgun and was prepared to use it and indeed did use it while showing no remorse afterwards.”
As he was taken into custody, Freyne turned to Judge O’Donnell and said “thanks Tom” .
