Dundon brothers jailed for making threats against Limerick family

Two Limerick brothers were jailed by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today for making threats to kill three members of the same family in the city.

Wayne Dundon was jailed for six years and his brother John was jailed for five and a half years for making threats to members of the Collins family.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that in Wayne Dundon's case the threat was more serious because it involved a threat to two offspring.

The two brothers remained impassive when the sentences were handed down. The court ordered both sentences to date from April 11, 2011 when the brothers were taken into custody.

The Dundons were convicted last month of making the threats after a 10-day trial.

John Dundon (aged 29), with an address at Hyde Road, Limerick, was convicted of threatening to kill April Collins (aged 24) at Hyde Road on the weekend of April 3 and 4, 2011.

His older brother Wayne Dundon (aged 33) of Lenihan Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, was convicted of threatening Mrs Alice Collins that he would kill or cause serious harm to her sons Gareth Collins and Jimmy Collins at Hyde Avenue, Limerick on September 30, 2010.

He was also found guilty of the intimidation of potential prosecution witnesses Alice and April Collins with the intention of obstructing the course of justice at the same address and on the same date.

The court heard during the trial that mother-of-three April Collins was in a relationship with Gerard Dundon, a brother of the accused men, for eight years until late 2010.

There was evidence that the catalyst for the threats was an attack on the home of Alice Collins by four women, including John Dundon’s wife Ciara, on the evening of September 30, 2010.

Ms Collins gave evidence that she called for gardaí to come to the scene and that, as community garda Niamh Keogh walked in to the house, she heard Wayne Dundon ask: “Why are the guards following her in to her house?”

The court heard that sometime after 8pm on the same evening Wayne Dundon walked in to Alice Collins' sitting room in a “very agitated state” and said his brother John was not happy and would “hunt people down” if his wife Ciara went to jail.

Alice Collins said that Wayne Dundon asked her if her son Jimmy went to a certain local pub every weekend before telling her John Dundon would “give some fool 10 grand” to kill Jimmy.

She said Wayne Dundon then told her: “Well, Gareth will stand in front of me and he’ll look at my face and this will be the last face he’ll see because I’m going to kill him myself”.

As he got up to leave the house, Alice Collins said Wayne Dundon told her: “You are digging your own grave; it’s very easy to make people disappear.”

She said the threats put the “fear of God” in to her, that she was “still not right” and “only living on nerves” since the incident and that she had altered her living habits as a result.

In her evidence to the court, April Collins said that she was at home on Hyde Road on March 25, 2011 when a “very angry” Wayne Dundon entered her home and threatened to kill her, her brother Gareth and her mother Alice Collins.

April Collins told the court that over a week later, on the night of April 3, 2011, she was sitting watching TV on her couch when someone began “bating” down the door.

She said she looked out her sitting room door and could see John Dundon through glass panels on the front door shouting: “I know you’re in there you tramp, I want to see my nephews, when I get you I am going to f****** kill you.”

Ms Collins said she retired to bed with her children later that night but awoke again at 2am to find John Dundon standing on a shed in her back yard, while another man stood in the garden.

April Collins said that when she asked John Dundon what he was doing there, she was “terrified” to hear him reply: “We’re looking for a good place to bury your mother.”

Convicting the brothers last month Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the three-judge court, said the court had been impressed by the “entirely credible and convincing" evidence of Alice Collins and was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Wayne Dundon had intimidated and made threats against her.

He said that, with regard to the three counts against Wayne Dundon of making threats to kill on March 25, 2011, the court found the evidence of April Collins to be credible.

He said that the court found that the actions of John Dundon on the evening and early morning of April 3 and 4, 2011 amounted to “sinister and threatening” actions on his part but that it would be unsafe to construe the words “we’re looking for a place to bury your mother” as a direct

threat to kill Alice Collins.

Chief Superintendent David Sheahan, Henry St, Limerick, told the court today that John Dundon had 40 previous convictions, two of which were outside the jurisdiction. He said that most of the convictions were for road traffic offences.

He said that John Dundon, who has two young children, was jailed for four years and six months by the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin on January 11, 2005 for making a threat to kill relating to an incident during a trial at the Central Criminal Court where five people were on trial for the murder of Kieran Keane.

He was also jailed for 20 months by the Limerick Circuit Court in January 2005 for threatening to damage property and this related to an incident where he threatened to burn down the house of a prison officer while he was in Limerick prison. A car belonging to the officer was later burned out.

Chief Supt Sheahan said that Wayne Dundon, a father of three, has 43 previous convictions, eight of which are in England. He said that he was convicted at Limerick Circuit Court on May 13, 2005 of making a threat to kill. This related to a threat to Ryan Lee who was working in a pub in Limerick and who refused admission to Dundon's teenage sister.

He was also sentenced to seven years for threatening to kill and three years for assault following an incident when he launched a violent assault on detectives who were interviewing him at Henry St Garda Station on December 22, 2004.

He was also sentenced to two years for assault by a court in April 2002 for an incident when he attacked a garda with a beer keg when the garda was trying to arrest one of his brothers. The garda was injured and forced to retire from the force. Most of the other convictions related to road traffic offences,he added.

Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, for Wayne Dundon, told the court that his family is now living in England to avoid media attention. Mr Dwyer said that there "has been a lot of adverse media publicity in relation to him."

He submitted that the offences were "at the lower end of the scale."