Man found guilty of possessing ammunition

A jury of ten women and two men returned a guilty verdict on the fifth day of the trial of a man accused of having 220 live bullets in a lunchbox in his house three years ago.

Don Blaney, 51, of Cnoc Abhainn, Old Church Road, Passage West, Co Cork, pleaded not guilty to being in possession of 220 live rounds of assault rifle ammunition at his home on February 18, 2005.

The jury took six hours to return their unanimous 11-1 verdict.

Judge Con Murphy remanded Blaney on bail to appear at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing on February 24, 2009. A probation report is to be prepared.

Asked during the trial about the finding of the ammunition, Blaney said he rejected with every fibre of his being having any knowledge of how they got there.

“I cannot speculate on who may have put them there, I am not prepared to go into a guessing game, I really do not know,” he said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

George Hegarty who described himself as a Republican and a member of Sinn Féin, called to Blaney’s home on an almost daily basis for years.

Mr Blaney testified: “I know Don definitely did not put them there.”

At the beginning of the case a neighbour of Blaney, John Corkery, said that his children found two partially burnt Northern Irish Sterling notes in their garden and he telephoned the gardaí.

When they called and interviewed him they asked if there had been any fires in the area recently, and one of Mr Corkery’s daughters interjected with the question “Why don’t you tell them about Don’s chimney?”

Mr Corkery explained to the guards that Don Blayney’s chimney had gone on fire the previous night but that this was nothing unusual. After this the gardaí obtained a warrant to search Blaney’s house.