Eamon McNamee jailed for firearm possession in kneecapping

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Eamon McNamee was sentenced at the Special Criminal Court on 19 June 2018 to six years in prison, with the final two years suspended, for his part in a kneecapping. The proceedings were reported on 19 June 2018.

McNamee pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence, namely assault causing harm, at Fairgreen, Saggart, Co Dublin, on 19 January 2013.

The court heard that Declan Smith was shot and wounded at Fairgreen. Presiding judge Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, sitting with Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Gerard Haughton, said McNamee was responsible for bringing him to the scene, where he suffered a kneecapping.

Firearms residue found on McNamee was similar to residue on Smith’s boiler suit. Justice Kennedy said the possibility could not be excluded that McNamee was standing within a metre of the person who fired the gun. She also considered garda evidence that he was the lowest member in the chain of command and had been ordered to be present.

Justice Kennedy assessed the offence as meriting eight years and six months, reducing it to six years after mitigation. She considered McNamee’s guilty plea, which she said was not early, and noted that he had been described as a family man with two young children who had worked as a roofer with his father. The court also heard that he had previously been jailed for five years for the sale and supply of drugs.

McNamee gave an undertaking to disassociate from previous associates and an unlawful organisation. In light of that undertaking, the court suspended the final two years. He entered a €1,000 bond to keep the peace for five years from his release and to comply with the undertaking permanently.