Heroin dealer asked undercover gardaí to rob pensioners

A heroin dealer armed with a lump hammer, claw hammer, and pepper spray on his way to robbing an isolated home belonging to two elderly brothers, has been jailed for 16 months.

Computer whizz Damien Hally was the main target of an undercover drugs operation in west Clare and sold heroin, cocaine and cannabis in the Tesco carpark in Kilrush to undercover gardaí, posing as drug addicts, in February to April 2013. Father-of-two Hally, of Cosy Cottage, Moyasta, Kilrush, asked the undercover gardaí to get involved “in a job” to carry out the burglary of the brothers’ home in north Clare in April 2013.

Insp John Ryan told Kilrush District Court yesterday Hally believed that the brothers had a lot of money.

However, gardaí intercepted him on April 10, 2013, in Miltown Malbay on his way to commit the burglary and found pepper spray in the car. Hally was also in possession of a green sports bag containing a lump hammer, a claw hammer, a hacksaw, two pliers, a screwdriver, a steak knife, a Phillip’s screwdriver, a flat-head screwdriver, a butter knife, three hacksaw blades, and a silver torch.

Gardaí had earlier obtained a surveillance order that allowed the undercover officers record conversations they had with Hally during two meetings in April 2013 after he first proposed the burglary.

In court yesterday, Judge Patrick Durcan described Hally’s behaviour as “cold, calculating, callous, uncaring and showed a complete disregard for his other neighbours in west Clare”.

Hally pleaded guilty to a range of offences concerning the burglary and the drug dealing to the undercover gardaí. He pleaded guilty to selling cannabis to the value of €50 to undercover gardaí in Tesco carpark on the Ennis Rd in Kilrush on February 4, 2013.

He also pleaded guilty to selling cocaine to the value of €100 to undercover gardaí in the Tesco carpark in Kilrush on March 29, 2013, and, on April 4, 2013, selling heroin to the value of €50 and cannabis to the value of €425.

Solicitor for Hally Patrick Moylan said he was addicted to the worst of drugs — heroin. He said: “All of these offences occurred to feed his addiction at the time.”

Mr Moylan said Hally was “exceptional” with computer software and did a computer course at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT).

He said: “He is a very bright chap who has completely changed his ways.”

Judge Durcan said that if gardaí had not intercepted him, the elderly men would have been robbed and their lives would have changed forever.

He said it was not appropriate to suspend any part of the sentence and he fixed recognisance in the event of an appeal.

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