Edmond Dunican jailed for imitation firearm court siege

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

Judge Patricia Ryan sentenced Edmond Dunican to eight years in prison, with the final two years suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 26 January 2021. She backdated the sentence to 20 December 2018, the day of the offence, because he had been in custody since then.

Dunican pleaded guilty to one count of carrying an imitation firearm with criminal intent in Dublin on 20 December 2018. The proceedings were reported on 26 January 2021.

Judge Ryan said the offence was planned and premeditated and had ongoing adverse effects on the victims. She suspended the final two years on condition that Dunican be of good behaviour and have no contact whatsoever with the three victims.

The court heard that Dunican drew a realistic firearm from his briefcase and threatened barrister Lisa Daly during a court hearing. He wore a device resembling a pipe bomb. An armed garda negotiator persuaded him to surrender the gun and let the women go.

Judge Ryan reduced the sentence from 11 years to eight after considering mitigating factors including Dunican’s remorse and state of mind. Fiona Murphy SC, defending, had told the court that Dunican felt at the time that this was his only course of action.