Man bound to peace for year over hoax call

A RETIRED Department of Defence engineer was bound to the peace for 12 months after a court heard he told a victim support worker he had hired thugs to harm his neighbours.

James Hosford Lynch told Sally O’Hanlon, of the voluntary Support After Crime service, he had ordered somebody from Limerick to harm his neighbours, the McDonaghs.

Ms O’Hanlon said she had first met Hosford Lynch when he visited her for advice on December 10, 2007.

Three days later Hosford Lynch, aged 55, from Baile Ard, Belvelly, Cobh, Co Cork, telephoned Ms O’Hanlon.

“He said he was going to get a job done,” Ms O’Hanlon said.

She added that Hosford Lynch told her he could pay people from Limerick €150 to break limbs, or €750 for “the full job”.

During the course of the conversation Ms O’Hanlon said she could hear a mobile phone ringing in Hosford Lynch’s home.

He told her it was the people from Limerick on their way and who were looking for directions.

Ms Hanlon said she was very upset and took his threats seriously.

She contacted Supt Barry McPolin, who passed the information onto gardaí in Cobh.

They immediately visited the McDonagh’s house and advised them on security. Gardaí also stepped up patrols in the area.

Brendan McDonagh — whose wife, Bernadette, is Hosford Lynch’s sister-in-law — said he wasn’t overly concerned when the gardaí came to the house to warn him.

“It was only when I heard he [Hosford Lynch] had applied to get his shotgun licence back that I got worried,” Mr McDonagh said.

Supt Martin Dorney said he checked phone records and discovered Hosford Lynch had made a call to Ms O’Hanlon’s office on the day in question.

Despite repeated questioning by Insp Tony O’Sullivan, Hosford Lynch denied he said anything to Ms O’Hanlon about hiring people to harm the McDonaghs.

“Do you think a woman of Sally O’Hanlon’s credibility would make it up,” Insp O’Sullivan said.

Again Hosford Lynch, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, denied the claim.

At a special sitting of Fermoy District Court yesterday Judge Aingeal Ni Chonduin bound Hosford Lynch to the peace for 12 months, on his own bond of €1,000, for making a hoax telephone call.

“If he’s got any sense he will keep to himself,” Judge Chonduin said.

Last April at Cobh District Court Judge Michael Pattwell denied the father-of-three an appeal against gardaí revoking his gun licence.

During the course of that case, the judge heard Hosford Lynch had been involved in a boundary dispute with his neighbours.

He said the retired Department of Defence worker was the aggressor.

“He appears to be the proverbial neighbour from hell,” Judge Pattwell said.