Courts / Dublin / Report

Jail for man arrested during confrontation with armed gardai

Date
2018-07-31

Stage
Sentence

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

A Dublin man has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court for possessing a 9mm Beretta handgun and silencer. Andrew O'Keeffe, aged 29, from Drumcliff Road, Cabra West, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty in June to the offence at Kylemore Way in Inchicore on 6 September 2017. The incident occurred during a confrontation with armed gardai in which an officer discharged seven rounds after a jeep drove towards officers restraining O'Keeffe on the ground. Mr Justice Tony Hunt noted a headline sentence of twelve years but reduced it to nine years with one year suspended, taking into account O'Keeffe's early guilty plea and longstanding drug addiction. The judge remarked on O'Keeffe's extensive criminal history spanning seventy-one previous convictions. The sentence was backdated to 6 September 2017 when O'Keeffe entered custody. The court heard O'Keeffe was not the driver of the vehicle from which the weapon was discarded.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Jail for man arrested during confrontation with armed gardai. Procedural stage: sentence

When:

September 6, 2017 Incident
July 24 Hearing Or Sentence
September 6 Hearing Or Sentence
2018-07-31 Publication

Case subjects

Andrew O'Keeffe

Accused

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: Referring to O'Keeffe's "past failures", the judge said it was in the defendant's interest for the court to encourage him to turn away from crime and not impose a 12 year sentence. Presiding judge Mr Justice Hunt, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Michael Walsh, addressed O'Keeffe, saying: "For a young man you have a shocking record and it is high time you got your act together as otherwise you are facing a lifetime of this." At a sentence hearing on July 24, Detective Inspector David Gallagher from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, summarised the facts of the case.