"Border Fox" jailed for seven years by non-jury court

A man known as "The Border Fox" has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court for his role in forcibly evicting a family from their home and launching a violent assault. The 62-year-old defendant, from County Armagh, pleaded guilty to assaulting one man causing him harm and to falsely imprisoning another at a residential complex in County Dublin on 9 June 2015. Presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt imposed three years for the assault and ten years with three suspended for the false imprisonment, to run concurrently and backdated to April 2015. The court heard the defendant was employed to carry out the offences and told the victim to vacate immediately when asked for time to leave. The judge noted the violent side of the defendant's personality remained a source of concern and that a custodial sentence was necessary given the gravity and premeditation of the offending. The victims and their family are now in the Witness Protection Programme.