Courts / Dublin / Report

'Jimmy' Mansfield: The school drop-out who turned to notorious terrorists to win back business empire

Date
2022-02-07

Stage
Sentence

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

The Special Criminal Court delivered a sentence in the case of 'Jimmy' Mansfield, who was found not guilty of conspiring to kidnap former security guard Martin Byrne. The court accepted that on June 9, 2015, a gang led by Dessie O'Hare and Declan Duffy kidnapped Mr Byrne at Keating Park, assaulting him and holding him at The Towers. While the judge found insufficient evidence that Mansfield deliberately lured Mr Byrne for the kidnapping, he was found to have lied about his interactions with the criminals. The court determined that Mansfield was aware of and approved the involvement of New IRA and INLA members in efforts to recover properties lost during the 2008 economic crash, including the Citywest Hotel. Mansfield was also found to have instructed the destruction of CCTV footage linking him to the events. The judgment noted that Mansfield had previously associated with dissident paramilitaries to address debt demands. O'Hare and Duffy, both notorious criminals with prior convictions for serious offenses including murder and false imprisonment, were central to the plot. The court highlighted Mansfield's 'shoddy and selfish' conduct, such as failing to contact his former employee after the incident, but concluded that his lies did not establish guilt for the conspiracy charge. The matter was finalized with this sentencing judgment.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: 'Jimmy' Mansfield: The school drop-out who turned to notorious terrorists to win back business empire. Procedural stage: sentence

When:

October 13, 1987 Other
March 2013 Incident
December 5, 2015 Incident
June 9, 2015 Incident
May 2015 Hearing Or Sentence
2022-02-07 Publication

Why: The judge said that Mansfield wanted to destroy the record of the footage because it "connected him to the events on that date" and because he "wanted to distance himself from the activities of the gang. CNI source report

Case subjects

Unnamed accused

Accused

Outcome: In his efforts to do so, he turned to notorious terrorists Dessie O'Hare and Declan 'Whacker' Duffy for help, setting in motion a chain of events that would see the property magnate jailed by the Special Criminal Court. "Jimmy" Mansfield, the non-jury court was told, was a jolly man with a "child-like innocence". In 1988 he was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for falsely imprisoning and assaulting Dublin dentist Dr John O'Grady, causing him grievous bodily harm.