Gary Kelly receives suspended sentence for threats to colleagues

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

Gary Kelly received a fully suspended three-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for threatening to kill or cause serious harm to two work colleagues.

Kelly first pleaded guilty in July 2018 to threatening John Maher and Brian Fitzpatrick. The offences took place in January 2018.

The proceedings were reported on 26 July 2019. Sentencing had been adjourned several times pending a probation report, which defence counsel Pieter Le Vert presented to Judge Melanie Greally that day.

Both complainants worked with Kelly at Dublin City Council. He told each man he would “get a bullet”. Judge Greally said they had found the threats immensely frightening and that they had lasting effects on both men.

The judge said the episode appeared to have coincided with a mental health breakdown involving psychosis, amid stresses at home and work and an increasing dependency on alcohol. She said Kelly had no history of offending and credited the mental health aspect, the fact that the offences were out of character, his supportive family and the probation report’s recommendations among the mitigating factors.

Judge Greally suspended the sentence entirely on condition that Kelly enter a bond to keep the peace, attend all mental health clinic appointments and be of good behaviour under three years of supervision. She also ordered him to have no contact with either complainant or their families for three years.