Sentence appeal for sending pig’s head to garda
Last month, Judge Gerald Keys imposed a two-year jail term on Brendan Mahoney, aged 48, for sending the pig’s head to the home of Garda Paul Heaslip and his wife Natalie O’Neill in January 2012.
As a result of receiving the rotting severed head, which was split down the middle, the frightened couple were forced to leave behind their life in west Clare.
In his sentencing, Judge Keys said he would suspend the final year and backdate the two-year term to January 8 this year, when Mahoney was taken into custody in Spain.
Mahoney, of 74 Cabra Park, Dublin 7, skipped bail in June 2013 and remained in Spain, where he worked as a barman.
His counsel, Breffni Gordon BL, told Ennis Circuit Court last month that Spain is where Mahoney is happiest and as soon as his time in prison is complete, it is his intention to immediately leave Ireland.
The sentence imposed meant that Mahoney, who has 46 previous convictions, could return to Spain by September or October this year.
However, the DPP has thrown a question mark over Mahoney’s planned autumn Mediterranean sun getaway.
The Courts Service has confirmed an appeal has been lodged by the DPP with the Court of Appeal against Judge Keys’ sentence on the grounds of undue leniency.
In April, after deliberating for only 44 minutes, a jury found Mahoney guilty of sending the pig’s head to the couple. In sentencing, Judge Keys said the couple were “profoundly affected” by receiving the head in the post.
In evidence, Sgt Ronan O’Hara said Garda Heaslip and his wife, teacher Natalie O’Neill, requested job transfers away from west Clare after receiving the decomposing pig’s head in the post at their Kilkee home on January 30, 2012.
Sgt O’Hara said: “As a result of this, Natalie had to leave her teaching job in the area. She was in fear to go to work on her own or to be in the house on her own, so Garda Heaslip would have to be with her at all times.”
“They ended up having to leave the accommodation that they were in. It caused enormous stress to a young couple starting off in life.”
In the trial, Ms O’Neill said that she was was “afraid”, “disgusted” and “horrified” when she saw that a box delivered to her home contained a severed pig’s head.
Sgt O’Hara said Garda Heaslip received the pig’s head after accompanying members from another agency within an Garda Síochána to see Mahoney. Sgt O’Hara said “wrong place, wrong time”.
At his sentencing hearing, a letter of apology to the couple was read out by Mr Gordon on Mahoney’s behalf. It read: “I apologise for my actions in sending the head to Garda Paul Heaslip and his wife, Natalie O’Neill and the stress caused to them as a result of my actions.” Mahoney said he accepted the jury’s verdict and that he has no intention of appealing the sentence.
Sentencing, Judge Keys said
gardai have a difficult job to do and sending menacing articles in the post to them is entirely unacceptable and “consequently this court must treat this wrongdoing as serious”.
He said he had no choice but to impose a prison sentence, but that he would suspend the final year and backdate the sentence to January 8.
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