Gareth Mulley given 10-year sentence for possessing car bomb

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

Gareth Mulley received a 10-year prison term with no portion suspended at the Special Criminal Court on 31 July 2015, following his conviction for possessing a car bomb. The proceedings were reported on 31 July 2015.

He had pleaded not guilty. The unlawful possession charge concerned Kilcurry Church in Co Louth on 25 May 2014. It covered an adapted beer keg of 50 litres, PETN and RDX, and homemade ammonium nitrate explosives weighing 50 kg. An improvised steel booster tube and an improvised time and power unit were also listed.

Presiding judge Mr Justice Paul Butler said Mulley had transported the materials and participated in their transfer between vehicles. Prosecutors alleged that the seized components were intended for a large beer keg bomb bound for Northern Ireland.

The judge took account of Mulley's previously clear record, commitment to his family and extensive involvement in Dundalk soccer. He nevertheless considered the offence's gravity and the lack of information about Mulley's future intentions to outweigh those mitigating factors.

The judge said the bomb was designed to cause damage and could kill. He regarded 10 years as the minimum sentence and backdated the term to 1 June 2014.

A separate count alleged that, on 25 May 2014, Mulley belonged to an unlawful organisation within the State: Oglaigh na hEireann, also known as the Irish Republican Army or IRA. Prosecution counsel Mr Paul Greene SC requested a nolle prosequi on that charge, asking that it should not proceed.