Businessman jailed for organising attack on Liberian man

A Limerick businessman who walked free from court after he admitted threatening to have the IRA kill a Liberian man was today jailed for one year following an appeal.

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard Raphael Mullally was the organiser and planner of the terrifying kidnapping and assault of a man he mistakenly believed had burgled his sister’s home.

After pleading guilty at Limerick Circuit Court last October, the father of three was given a three-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay the victim, Jude Romanus, €30,000.

But the three-judge appeal court today overturned that decision, jailing Mullally for three years with two of those years suspended.

His wife, Patricia, burst into tears as the ruling was delivered.