THE intimidation of State witnesses strikes at the very core of our judicial system, a judge said, as convicted criminal Vincent Collopy joins two of his brothers in jail over threats made to a former associate.
He fled to Bulgaria more than two years ago and was extradited and brought back to be charged with intimidating and threatening to kill Willie Moran over money owed from the sale of a horse.
Last month, Kieran and Brian Collopy were jailed for eight years each after they were caught preparing bags of heroin at a kitchen table in a house in St Mary’s Park.
The jailing of Vincent this week has stripped the Collopy gang of its powerful figureheads as gardai in the Limerick Division turn the heat up on drug dealing and criminal activity.
Earlier this year, Vincent Collopy pleaded guilty to the intimidation charge before the court and the State dropped the threat to kill accusation.
On June 9, 2010, Willie Moran and his then girlfriend, Margaret were with their two children at her mother’s home in St Mary’s Park.
The family got in to their car and as they were about to leave, Vincent Collopy and his brother Brian pulled up in a van shouting at the Moran’s.
Vincent Collopy made gun like gestures to Willie and shouted threats like “bang bang Willie, Willie bangs all day”, while still making gun like signals.
At the time, Willie Moran, with more than 30 previous convictions, was a potential State witness in the trail of two other Collopy brothers who he accused of threatening to kill him.
Damien and Kieran had been just been sent for trial in custody that same day on the charges. They later pleaded guilty and were each jailed for five years.
They alleged Mr Moran owed up to €5,000 for horses to their late brother Philip Collopy, who accidentally shot himself in the head in March 2009.
“In fear” according to the evidence, Willie Moran made a complaint to the gardai.
In a bizarre twist later that evening, Vincent and Brian went to Henry Street gardai and made a complaint that Willie Moran had threatened them .
However, gardai had CCTV footage corroborating Willie’s version of events.
Brian Collopy was arrested, charged, opted for a trial but was found guilty and was jailed for eight years reduced to six years on appeal.
Vincent, although not charged, was still a subject of garda enquiries however he left and travelled to Manchester before settling in Bulgaria.
He married and lived there running a small beach shop with his three children.
Gardai however caught up with Vincent and brought him back on foot of a European Arrest Warrant. In his judgement at Limerick Circuit Court, Judge Tom O’Donnell said that Collopy’s actions were an “unambiguous attempt to intimidate not just Willie but the Moran family.”
Subsequently, “they were placed in protective custody and had to deal with their lives and liberty being discommoded and all that comes with it. Their children became very frightened, not just from the car chase that day but from all the events.”
During the sentence hearing earlier this year, a probation report was canvassed by Collopy’s legal team, but defence counsel Michael Bowman SC sought to exclude its contents, because aspects of it didn’t read well.
Vincent Collopy, who turns 37 in September, has a number of previous convictions including two for threatening to kill and a conviction for drug dealing.
The intimidation of Willie Moran was described as a “cold calculated and determined attempt to intimidate the Moran family”, Judge O’Donnell said
The case had to be viewed in the most serious of light the Judge remarked adding that “this strike at the very core of our criminal justice system and it can not be tolerated.
Vincent Collopy of St Ita’s Street and Sunny Beach, Bulgaria was jailed for five years but Judge O’Donnell suspended the final two years on the provision he stays away from the Moran family for the next seven years.
