Francis Kelleher loses appeal against four-year coercion sentence

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

Francis Kelleher lost his appeal against a four-year prison sentence for paying men who claimed to belong to the Continuity IRA to make death threats against his nephew and pressure him to abandon proposed legal action. The proceedings were reported on 29 February 2016.

He had admitted four coercion charges concerning efforts to prevent his nephew from taking action he was legally entitled to take. The offences occurred between June 2012 and January 2013. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed the four-year sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 30 April.

Mr Justice Alan Mahon described the threats as especially menacing and said they had deeply frightened the nephew and his family. He condemned the use of the Continuity IRA’s name to intensify that fear. The judge said the nephew checked beneath his car before work each day and feared unfamiliar cars and walking locally. He said Kelleher’s substantial payments demonstrated planning and determination, ruling out an impulsive or momentary lapse.

Defence barrister Thomas Creed SC said Kelleher was devastated by losing his hospital ministry, income and home, which had been supplied by the diocese. He argued that the sentencing judge should have suspended some of the prison term.

Mr Justice Alan Mahon, sitting alongside Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Paul Butler, acknowledged that four years could be towards the upper end of the sentencing range. However, he said the number and nature of the offences put the term within the sentencing judge’s discretion. The appeal was dismissed because no error of principle had been established.