Seven years for man shot in gangland murder

A man who was caught with €25,000 worth of heroin days after he was shot in the neck during a gangland murder has been given a seven and a half year sentence.

Steven Barry (aged 24) of Tymon North Green, Tallaght said he got a call after the shooting saying his family would be killed if he did not pick up the drugs.

He pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply at the Gondola Pub in Newcastle, Co Dublin on March 12, 2008.

Judge Katherine Delahunt accepted Barry was at “the low end of the scale” but said he “provided a barrier and valuable assistence to criminals”.

Judge Delahunt imposed a seven-year sentence with the final three years suspended on strict conditions.

Detective Garda Shane Kelly told prosecuting counsel, Mr Dominic McGinn BL, that an off-duty garda was in the pub when Barry came in and asked for a drink but was refused. Barry had his jaw wired shut as a result of the shooting several days previously and was still wearing hospital slippers.

He went to the bathroom several times while in the pub despite being repeatedly refused a drink. The garda asked him what had happened to his face and he said he was hit by a car. The garda thought he was acting suspiciously and alerted his colleagues who arrived on the scene.

Barry was leaving the pub when he met the plain clothes gardaí coming in. Barry ran back into the pub, throwing five white plastic bags up the stairs as he went into the bathroom. He was arrested there and admitted the bags contained “gear”. Subsequent analysis showed they contained €24,358 worth of heroin.

He told gardaí he had been shot while baby-sitting with another man five days previously. The gunmen killed the other man, who was thought to have been the target of the hit and shot Barry in the neck, taking two inches out of his jaw.

He said he got a call a few days later to pick up the drugs or his family “would get a bullet”. Asked what his payment was going to be, he replied, “not getting a bullet”.

He said when he saw the gardaí outside the pub he thought they were gunmen coming to kill him and was “delighted” to find they were gardaí.

He made full admissions but said he thought the drugs were only worth €3,000.

The court heard Barry had 32 previous convictions for drug and road traffic offences.

Defence counsel, Mr Bernard Condon SC, said his father was a former prison officer and his mother had died when he was young. He said he was a chronic heroin addict and had sold all his belongings to buy drugs.

He said his father was an alcoholic and when his mother got terminal cancer the father could not handle the stress and abandoned the family. When Barry’s mother died of cancer his aunt moved in to raise the family but was forced to kick Barry out because of his drug use.

The court heard she was willing to take him back and support him if he is willing to overcome his addiction.