Gunman jailed for five years for selling guns to gangs

A gunman who had clocked up more than 117 convictions has been jailed for five years for selling guns and ammunition to Limerick gangs.

Pa Byrnes Jr sold the armoury to criminals in return for cash to fund a chronic drug habit, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

Byrnes, aged 36, who previously served a six-year jail sentence for shooting and injuring a man in 2005, had pleaded guilty to possessing a 12-gauge Miroku shotgun, a Haenel Model 300 air rifle, and 26 rounds of .22 short calibre Remington UMC ammunition.

The guns and ammunition were found by gardaí when they searched Byrnes’s apartment at Maxwell Lane, Croom, Co Limerick, on July 2, 2015. Byrnes, who is originally from Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, was out when gardaí searched his home and found the weaponry hidden in a bedroom.

The court heard Byrnes, who is battling a serious heroin addiction, was arrested a short time later.

In garda interviews, Byrnes admitted he had sold the guns, which were stolen, to gangs for cash and drugs.

Sgt Niall Flood previously told the court Byrnes told him he had sold other guns to individuals involved in “serious criminal activity”.

Byrnes was jailed for six years in 2005, for shooting Edward ‘Teddy Boy’ Harty three times in the chest and neck in Patrickswell.

Two other men sustained gunshot wounds in the gun attack.

The incident was planned in a pub in Croagh, Co Limerick, by Byrnes and two associates.

Witnesses said they saw the trio change their clothes and don balaclavas and gloves at the local GAA pitch. Byrnes was identified as the gunman who opened fire on Mr Harty with a Winchester pump-action shotgun.

In what was considered to be a revenge attack eight years later, Byrnes was left partially paralysed after he was assaulted.

Byrnes was attacked by a group of men at Lord Edward St, Limerick City, on May 23, 2013, in what gardaí believe was a reprisal for the 2005 shooting.

He suffered brain damage and partial paralysis to one side of his body following the attack.

His attackers, who wore balaclavas, beat him about the head with a hurley, in a sustained assault.

Byrnes was walking in the southside of Limerick when the attack occurred just after 3pm. A car pulled up alongside him and a group of men armed with hurleys jumped out and struck him repeatedly on the head and body.

Byrnes was placed in the intensive care unit at University Hospital Limerick where doctors deemed him to be critically ill.

No one was ever charged with the attack.