INLA member who rammed Garda car jailed for four years

An INLA man who rammed a Garda car which tried to stop him in Dundalk was jailed for four years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

Paul Kelly, a 45-year-old father of five, of Cedarwood Park, Cox’s Demesne, Dundalk pleaded guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish National Liberation Army, or the INLA, on December 20 last year.

Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O’Sullivan of the Special Detective Unit told the court that Kelly was observed riving a black Volkswagen Passat car during a garda surveillance operation in Dundalk on December 20 last year.

When members of the Emergency Response Unit attempted to stop the car and blocked the road with a patrol car with its blue lights flashing, Kelly rammed the Garda car.

Kelly and his passenger were arrested and when the car boot was searched gardaí found a large quantity of stolen Garda uniforms, including tunics, caps and fluorescent jackets. These has been stolen from the homes of members of the gardaí in Waterford and Lucan.

Gardaí also found two black bomber jackets with the logo 'Republican Socialist Movement Dundalk', two bulletproof vests and an extendable baton.

Jailing him for four years, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the court must take into account that the maximum sentence for membership is now eight years and that Kelly had expressed no remorse or any indication of his future conduct.