Limerick gang members' prison sentences cut over mini riot

Five members of a Limerick crime gang jailed for their part in a pitched battle with rival criminals outside a fast food outlet in the city today had their sentences reduced.

The Court of Criminal Appeal ruled their prison terms should be cut to four and a half years.

The men - Kieran Ryan and David Sheehan, both aged 22, and Edward, Patrick and David McCarthy, aged 26, 34, and 22 - had been eating dinner with their partners and young children in Supermacs on the Ennis Road on May 27, 2003 – the height of the Limerick gangs’ feud.

Two men from a rival outfit were spotted entering the car park in a van.

The pair jumped out armed with a walking stick and a snooker cue.

Ryan, Sheehan and the McCarthys quickly armed themselves with an array of makeshift weapons from the restaurant including a baby high chair and a wet floor sign and headed outside to challenge their rivals.

A mini riot ensued with one man being badly beaten about the head and requiring 16 stitches.

The fracas did not last long however as members of the local garda sub aqua unit happened to be passing in an unmarked squad car.

They pulled into the car park and split up the warring factions.

As the gardaí broke up the battle, two other men carrying a golf club and a steering lock arrived to fight the McCarthys, Ryan and Sheehan.

The five men were tried and convicted of violent disorder in June 2004 at the Circuit Criminal Court in Limerick.

After a lengthy 13-day hearing, four of the men were sentenced to six years in jail while David McCarthy was given five years and three months.

The two men they had tried to attack were jailed for three years after pleading guilty to violent disorder.

The two men who arrived on the scene later were sentenced to two years and 18 months respectively on weapons charges.

Cutting the five men’s sentences the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal said: “It is not however clear that the reason for the sentence of six years was that the learned trial judge had regard to factors beyond those he was entitled to consider. The court does not accept that he did so.

“Nor is there any evidence that the learned trial judge found that these applicants were more to blame or contributed more to the events which had occurred.”

The judgement went on: “It would appear that the learned trial judge considered both sides or camps to be equally to blame or equally to have caused the events to occur, and this court does not consider such a conclusion to be unsupported by the evidence.

“This court is nevertheless of the view that the sentence of six years is disproportionately high vis-a-vis that imposed on the two accused who pleaded guilty and were sentenced at the same time.”