Suspended sentence for possession of guns and ammunition

A father-of-one who picked up two shotguns and ammunition from a derelict house after a man threatened to put a hand grenade through his window has been given a six-year suspended sentence.

Sean Ward (aged 23), of Balcurris Road, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the shotguns and cartridges at his home on November 26, 2005.

He had 18 previous convictions, including an 18-month sentence for assault after a row broke out over a stolen car.

One man, Christopher Doyle, was stabbed to death during the dispute but it was accepted that Ward had no culpability in relation to the killing.

He had pleaded guilty to assaulting Stephen Walsh, a friend of Mr Doyle’s, causing him harm outside a block of flats in Ballymun on November 1, 2004.

Garda David McKinley told Mr Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that a pump-action shotgun and a dismantled shotgun were found under a bath in Ward’s home. A number of shotgun cartridges where also discovered in a bedroom.

Ward later told gardaí that he had argued with a woman the previous day which led to her boyfriend threatening to shoot Ward dead.

This boyfriend arrived at Ward’s mother’s home and threatened to throw a hand grenade through the window.

Ward told gardaí he could not name the man who had threatened him because it would put him and his family in danger.

Ward told Judge Hunt that he had overheard someone say that there were guns in a derelict house and that they were only in his home three hours when the gardaí arrived.

Defence counsel, Mr Gerry O’Brien SC, asked Judge Hunt to accept that his client had made efforts to rehabilitate and create a future for himself and his son. He said he had been applying for a number of courses to try and secure stable employment.