Man jailed for discharging shotgun through window of house

A 23-year-old man who discharged a sawn off shotgun through the sitting room window of a Ballyfermot house in the early hours of the morning has been jailed for seven years.

Daniel Kavanagh, whose father is serving a life sentence for murder, claimed that he attacked the house in retaliation for an assault on his sister in an ongoing dispute between two local families.

Kavanagh, of Cherry Orchard Crescent, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to recklessly discharging a firearm and producing a sawn off shot gun while resisting arrest at Cherry Orchard Parade on November 10, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition on the same occasion.

Judge Frank O'Donnell said that "by any standards" this was "a very serious offence particularly considering the context in which you were confronted by gardaí", whom he said had been left in fear of their lives after Kavanagh had used the firearm to "to deter and intimidate them".

He said "the message must go out to people who try to settle their disputes by using firearms" that they will be dealt with severely by the courts and added that the weapons had been "deliberately shortened and designed and not with the intention of shooting rabbits".

Judge O'Donnell took into account a probation report which both described Kavanagh as being at a "high risk of re-offending" and outlined his sad history and the fact that he had got to know his father while sharing a prison cell with him.

Detective Sergeant Denis Smith told Ms Caroline Biggs BL, prosecuting, that the residents of the house had left the sitting room to go to bed and the room was in darkness when Kavanagh fired a single shot through the window at about 3.45 am.

Gardaí on mobile patrol in the area heard a loud bang coming from the Cherry Orchard Parade area and when they went to investigate they saw Kavanagh and his co-accused on the street.

The unmarked garda patrol pulled up to the two men who lifted the firearms they were carrying and aimed them at the car. The gardaí identified themselves but the men continued to aim the guns at them and shouted "get the f*** away."

Det Gda Smith said the gardaí feared they would be shot and reversed the car until the men lowered the weapons and ran away. The gardaí radioed for assistance and followed the pair for a distance until they turned and again raised their weapons at the patrol car before fleeing the area.

Gardaí recovered two weapons nearby and Kavanagh was nominated as a suspect. Gardaí arrested him a short time later and he told them there had been an ongoing feud between his family and another in the area.

Kavanagh told gardaí that the previous week a railway sleeper had been pushed through the window of a room where his sister was sleeping and that she had been attacked.

He said he had got the guns for protection a week earlier and hidden them near his house. He said that after a night drinking he and his co-accused decided "on the spur of the moment" to attack the house.

Det Gda Smith agreed with defence counsel, Mr John Aylmer SC (with Mr Derek Cooney BL), that Kavanagh, who has 15 previous convictions, had only had contact with his father through prison visits after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 1991.

Mr Aylmer said Kavanagh had been abusing alcohol since he was 11-years-old and had been "getting into trouble" since he was 15-years-old.

He said his mother was unable to cope with Kavanagh and his siblings, several of whom have drug problems, and she suffered from depression.