Dundalk man jailed for possession of explosives

A Dundalk man was jailed for five years with the last two suspended yesterday after pleading guilty to possession of explosives at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Brian Fitzpatrick (50) of Castle Ross in Dundalk was charged with two counts of possession of an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances on December 16^th last at Mitchelstown Cross, Castletown, Navan, Co Meath.

The court heard he pleaded guilty to one of the charges soon after the incident and has since shown remorse.

Defence counsel Micheal P O’Higgins SC said Mr Fitzpatrick was “is not in the first rank of intellect” and had “no intention of doing anything like this again.”

Presiding Judge Paul Butler said the offence was serious but accepted that in this case he was not dealing with someone who was in possession of a bomb. He also noted that Mr Fitzpatrick was not a member of any criminal organisation or gang.

He imposed a five year sentence with the final two to be suspended on the conditions that he lodge a €500 bond and that he does not associate with any known members of criminal organisations.

The sentence was backdated to August 25 2015 when Mr Fitzpatrick entered into custody.

Source: The Sunday World

Knockbridge business slammed for selling “bogus” service dogs

Henry Fitzsimons of Service Dogs Europe

A locally-based business has been exposed as bogus after selling service dogs for thousands of pounds in the UK which were not trained accordingly.

Knockbridge-based Service Dogs Europe, whose directors are listed as Henry Fitzsimons and Leila Maknickaite, have reportedly sold several service dogs to Irish and UK families only for the pets’ new owners to discover they were barely house trained.

Joanne Buckley from Liverpool told The Daily Mail yesterday that she paid £4,000 for a dog which Service Dogs Europe said was specially trained to help her autistic son.

Service Dogs Europe told Joanne that 11-month-old golden retriever Buddy would help her seven-year-old son Bobby deal with social situations that cause him stress.

However, after handing over £4,000 for Buddy she quickly realised he couldn’t even sit or fetch.

She then attempted to contact Service Dogs Europe for answers only to discover they had shut down their website and Facebook account while their numbers were out of service.

Former manager Elizabeth Wacker, who left in May, said: “I think almost every single one of those dogs had barely enough training to even be called a well-behaved pets, let alone a service dog.

“He’s the biggest conman I’ve ever seen,” referring to owner Henry Fitzsimons.

Miss Wacker claims there are at least 20 former clients who paid thousands of pounds for dogs that were supposed to have specialist training to help their disabled children.

Among them are the parents of Dylan Fletcher, who last year raised €6,000 (4,300) to buy Bella, a golden retriever that was supposed to calm the eight-year-old, who suffers from ODD and ADHD.

However, the dog refused to go upstairs where Dylan spends most of his time, and when he had a meltdown, Bella was supposed to put her head on his chest to calm him, but instead ran away.

Another victim was Blakely, now three, who suffers from chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIP), a condition which affects around one in every 75,000 children.

His parents Sam and Ricky Adams raised nearly £4,000 for service dog Daisy but she had to later be sent back for more training due to a number of behavioural issues.

By this point, Blakely had already fallen in love with her. But when they phoned the company to try and get her back, they realised that it had essentially disappeared and Daisy was gone forever.

Former employee Miss Wacker claims that Mr Fitzsimons has sold all of his dogs and told former clients he had gone into liquidation.

He was unavailable for comment.

On October 19^th The Irish Examiner featured an article which claimed they had located 26 customers who had voiced serious concerns about the company. Collectively they had paid more than €156,000 for their dogs.

Read the Daily Mail story here.

Garda killer Adrian Crevan Mackin previously shot woman in botched robbery five years ago

Garda killer Adrian Crevan Mackin shot a woman twice in a botched armed robbery attempt in Newry in 2010.

That’s according to a report in today’s Irish Daily Star, which claims Mackin blasted  Roisin Rocks after she activated a panic alarm at a casino she was working in.

The paper claims that Mackin attempted to shoot the mum-of-two a third time but the gun jammed.

Ms Rocks underwent emergency surgery after she was hit in the stomach by the bullets and has been left with severe kidney problems since.

The 24-year-old gunned down Garda Tony Golden in Omeath 11 days ago before turning the gun on himself. He also shot his partner Siobhan Phillips several times. She remains in a critical condition in hospital.

The full story can be read in today’s Irish Daily Star.

27 extra Gardaí for Dundalk branded “wholly inadequate”

Dundalk Garda Station

Local Gardaí have described the deployment of an additional 27 Gardaí to Dundalk as “wholly inadequate”.

That’s according to a report in today’s Irish Independent which says rank and file officers believe the additional support won’t make any difference to policing along the Border.

It is understood that 25 Gardaí and two sergeants are being sent to the district following the death of Garda Tony Golden in Omeath.

Local Gardaí are said to have been left deeply traumatised by that murder, coming less than three years after another Dundalk-based officer, Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, was killed in Bellurgan by a south Armagh crime gang.

“After Adrian’s murder we were promised extra people but they only stayed for six weeks before returning to their stations. Since then the numbers here actually fell further,” a source told crime correspondent Paul Williams.

“Going on patrol now, colleagues are telling each other to be extra-careful out there and members’ loved ones are petrified.

“The Dundalk area accounts for almost 50% of all crime in the Northern Region, which stretches from Donegal all along the Border to Dundalk and it is taking a terrible toll on everyone.

“We wouldn’t be talking about all this if it wasn’t for one of our friends and colleagues being murdered, but people are saying they have had enough,” the source added.

The sources described being snowed under with emergency calls and they have to deal with daily violence and car rammings.

In September, Dundalk received five new recruits from Templemore – one for each unit – but on the weekend they arrived, six local officers were injured in a series of car rammings in the town.

It is understood that 16 of the officers being re-deployed to Dundalk are being sent from the neighbouring Cavan/Monaghan Division, where manpower levels there are already down by 22%.

Meanwhile, the Garda Representative Association is due to seek a meeting with Garda Human Resources Management (HRM) to request that Dundalk and the Border stations receive the lion’s share of the next batch of young recruits currently in training.

“If there is not a major injection of manpower then our colleagues in Dundalk will be burned out and you could see a large number being forced off work due to stress.”

Less than a third of drink driving cases in Louth lead to convictions

Less than a third of drink driving cases before the courts in Co Louth since January 2013 have resulted in convictions.

That’s according to figures published in today’s Irish Times, which show that just 32% of drink drivers had been convicted between the start of 2013 and May 2015.

Only Kerry, at 29%, had a lower conviction rate than Louth, which had the joint second lowest figure alongside Waterford.

The national average was 40%, with Offaly having the highest conviction rate at 68%. England and Wales both had a 97% conviction rate in comparison.

In Dundalk, there were 134 convictions for 392 offences (34%) while there were 118 convictions for 385 offences in Drogheda (31%). It was revealed that in Ardee of those convicted of drink driving, none had their licence numbers recorded.

The same judges would be present in the District Courts in Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda, with neighbouring Cavan and Monaghan also having low conviction rates of 41% and 42% respectively.

Senior Garda in Dundalk receives death threats from criminal gang he is investigating

News of the threat comes just days after an estimated 4,000 Gardaí attended the funeral of Garda Tony Golden in Blackrock

A senior Garda in Dundalk has reportedly received death threats from a criminal gang he has been investigating.

News of the threat comes just over a week after the murder of Garda Tony Golden in Omeath and less than three years since the death of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in Bellurgan.

The Irish Sun reported today that a senior detective in Dundalk Garda Station was followed home by gang members who are said to be serious in their threats against him.

Gardaí are treating the threat, which occurred last month, seriously and say that security precautions have been put in place.

The gang are believed to be associates of Adrian Donohoe’s killers.

A source told the paper: “The detective who has been threatened has been a real thorn in the side of the criminal gang operating in Dundalk.

“Gardai received intelligence the gang was planning to kill him or cause him serious harm and security precautions were put in place.

“Friends of the gang who murdered Detective Donohoe are also still making threats by letting Gardai know where they live.

“They’re just some of the many threats issued to gardai working in one of the most difficult policing environments in the country.

“These people don’t care about the fact two innocent men have lost their lives and are a law on to themselves.”

Coincidentally, the murder threat comes hot on the heels of news that an additional 25 uniformed Gardaí have been sent to Dundalk in the past week.

There had been reports following Garda Golden’s murder that as many as 40 troops would be sent to the local Garda Division but it was confirmed yesterday that this number is now 25.

Garda Headquarters also said an intelligence led investigation has been established into serious crime in the area involving various specialist units.

However, a spokesperson refused to comment on a Sunday newspaper report which claimed there has been an IRA mole in the gardaí locally.

The Sunday Independent reported that a number of investigations were being reviewed amid concerns they may have been compromised.

A garda spokesperson declined to comment except to say that the newspaper report was ‘being examined.’

Dundalk Gardaí walk out on Garda Commissioner

Garda Tony Golden RIP

Colleagues of Garda Tony Golden walked out on the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan when she tried to address them on Monday.

News of the walk out was revealed in today’s Irish Daily Mirror, with Gardaí said to be fed up with cutbacks in the force in recent years.

Ms O’Sullivan was addressing Gardaí following the shock killing of their colleague Garda Golden, who was gunned down in Omeath on Sunday evening.

The Mirror reports that a young female Garda made it clear to the Commissioner she was sick of cuts in resources.

The young Garda then led “up to 10 officers” out of the meeting.

Ms O’Sullivan was back at Dundalk Garda Station yesterday for a private memorial service for Garda Golden. The father of three will be reposing at his home in Sandygrove in Blackrock from 3pm to 7pm today before removal tomorrow for his funeral Mass at St Oliver Plunkett Church in Blackrock.

This is the second major tragedy to befall local Gardaí in under three years following the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in January 2013.

Yesterday’s Budget allocated for the training and placement of 600 new Gardaí nationwide but that is unlikely to restore morale straight away in a mourning force. Prior to the announcement Sinn Féin president and local TD Gerry Adams hit out at the cuts to resources of Gardaí in the border area.

Yesterday Fr Michael Cusack from St Joseph’s Redemptorist Church in Dundalk also called for more Garda resources.

He said: “The staffing levels need to be upped and the commitment financially needs to be upped.”

Fears pair are working as pimps targeting young women in Dundalk

Liam ‘Creepy’ Crawley’ from Blackrock

A local man and his Northern Irish partner are working as pimps targeting young women in Dundalk, according to a report in The Sunday World newspaper.

The paper claims that Liam ‘Creepy’ Crawley (65) from Blackrock and ‘Mucky’ Marty Heaney (52) from Belfast are two of Ireland’s busiest cross-border sex-for-sale merchants.

Journalist Hugh Jordan reports that parents in the area say the pair have set up business together.

“This is a partnership of perverts and it’s a very worrying development for parents of teenage girls in this area,” one worried mum told The Sunday World.

Marty Heaney

The paper claims tha Crawley likes to target youngsters – many hooked on heroin – persuading them to sell their bodies for sex, while grabbing a substantial percentage for himself in the process.

Heaney allegedly coaxes cash-strapped teens to join his ‘Surprise Surprise’ stripogram service, which according to reports is a “thinly-veiled cover for prostitution.”

Concerned parents contacted the Sunday World after spotting the pair prowling the streets of Dundalk, near to where a teenage schoolgirls’ summer reunion was taking place.

Crawley and Heaney were seen chatting to the youngsters as the girls made their way to a local hotel where the function was due to start.

Sunday World inquiries revealed that the sex creeps offered to give some of the girls a lift home when the gathering was over. Heaney even tried to obtain phone numbers from some of them.

Crawley and Heaney have also been reportedly spotted around the back streets on nights when it is known a teenage disco operates in the town.

Last week, one mum interviewed by the Sunday World said the appearance of these men on the streets was a very worrying development.

“We know about these people and as a result of what has appeared in the press already we recognised them immediately,” she said.

“I want to send out a word of warning to all parents with young girls to be on the lookout for these men.”

Read the full story here.

Source and pictures: The Sunday World

Heinz writes off almost €19m on sale of Dundalk factory

The former Heinz factory in Dundalk

Heinz wrote off £13.8m (€18.6m) on the sale of its manufacturing plant in Dundalk this year to the Manchester-based Authentic Food Company, newly-filed accounts for the Heinz operation in Ireland show.

While details of the price The Authentic Food Company (TAFC) paid for the factory aren’t disclosed in the latest set of accounts, they confirm that Heinz shouldered significant impairment losses associated with the sale.

Heinz signed a three-year deal with TAFC to continue production of Heinz products at the Dundalk facility.

The plant makes products including Weight Watcher meals, its Ross line, and other frozen ready meals.

The accounts also show that HJ Heinz Manufacturing Ireland made an £11.6m (€15.7m) loss last year once the impairment charge was included in the figures.

About 160 people were employed at the Dundalk factory when the sale was finalised last February.

Source: Irish Independent

O’Dowd calls for pre-Christmas General Election

Fergus O’Dowd

Local Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd has called for a snap General Election.

The Drogheda man told The Irish Times today that he believes a pre-Christmas election is the best option for the current government.

This was despite the majority of the 34 TDs spoken to by the paper saying they did not expect an election to take place until early 2016.

O’Dowd said: “It is better for us to go as soon as possible, before Christmas.

“The only show in town is the budget. It is the right moment to go,” he said.

O’Dowd will once again be on the Fine Gael ticket, along with fellow TD Peter Fitzpatrick.