Border Fox should be forgiven, says Dunne

BUSINESS tycoon Ben Dunne has defended notorious kidnapper Dessie O’Hare saying he believes he is a changed man and should be forgiven.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Joe Duffy show yesterday, Mr Dunne, himself a former kidnap victim, said if he met his own kidnappers, he would forgive them.

“I know what it’s like to hurt somebody, to do something terrible and I’ve been forgiven. If I met them (his kidnappers) I would forgive them.”

Mr Dunne was referring to his wife, when she forgave him after he was caught in a Florida hotel room in 1992 with drugs and a call-girl.

He said that Dessie O’Hare, the republican gunman who masterminded the kidnap of Dublin dentist Dr John O’Grady and chopped off two of his fingers, was also entitled to forgiveness, in accordance with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

“I’ve read about forgiveness and I’ve seen it at first hand in my own life and I think that it’s a very hard thing to do, but everybody at some stage in their lives has to be able to forgive.”

Mr O’Hare, nicknamed the Border Fox, is serving a 40-year sentence for the kidnap and mutilation of Dr O’Grady. He has been moved to Castlerea Prison in preparation for his release under the Belfast Agreement after spending 14 years in jail.

The ex-INLA member triggered a major manhunt when his gang kidnapped Dr O’Grady in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, in October 1987, holding him in a basement in Parkgate Street, Dublin. When a ransom demand for Dr O’Grady, a son-in-law of millionaire businessman Dr Austin Darragh, was not met, O’Hare chopped the tops off two of Dr O’Grady’s fingers and left them along with a photo of the stumps in a cathedral.

After three weeks on the run, he was arrested during a shoot-out in which he was injured and a companion was killed.

A Nenagh garda who had a gun pointed in his face before the fatal shoot-out that led to O’Hare’s arrest said he should serve more time in prison. Retired Garda Supt Pat Moriarty, who held O’Hare’s hand as he lay riddled with bullets after the gun battle that lead to his capture, said: “The Border Fox has paid his debt to society but he is getting out too soon, maybe after five years it would be a more suitable time for his release.”

Mr Moriarty said he was in favour of O’Hare being released under the Belfast Agreement, but said his crimes were heinous. Mr Moriarty was awarded a Scott Medal for bravery in 1988 for his part in the capture of O’Hare. He later became Garda Supt in Nenagh and retired in 1995.