Gang boss jailed for assault and extortion

THE leader of a gang who organised a savage attack on the former owner of two massage parlours and threatened him for money in the name of the IRA was jailed yesterday for five years.

A jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts against Edward Buckley, (aged 33) of Manor Hill, Ballincollig, Co Cork, and now of Park Road, Muskerry Estate, Ballincollig, County Cork, on two charges on the indictment, namely assault John O’Connor at a house in Macroom in February 2000 and demanding money with menaces from him at his home in Hazel Road, Togher, Cork, in April 1999.

Judge Sean O’Donnabhain said, “You were the leader of what was an act of significant criminality, organised and continuous, akin to organised crime. “I can not give you any discount on your sentence for remorse, you did not have any, you did not show any, you do not have any now. You tried every trick in the book.”