A former soldier was today jailed for five years for the unlawful possession of a firearm on the night an INLA man was shot dead in Dublin.
Mr Richard Tobin (49) of Somerville Drive, Crumlin, Dublin, pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to the unlawful possession of a semi-automatic rifle with intent to endanger life at Upper Clanbrassil St, Dublin on July 22nd 1994.
Mr Tobin had earlier this week pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr John Bolger (31) on the same date. Today the murder charge was dropped.
The court heard the accused had been arrested two days after the shooting but afterwards moved to England. He was extradited in December 1999 and has been in custody since that date.
The court heard the deceased and a friend had been involved in a row with the accused and another man outside a pub in the early hours of the morning of the July 22nd.
Mr Bolger was in Mr Kenny's car when the car "was shot at". Mr Bolger was shot and died shortly afterwards.
In evidence, Det Sgt Walter Kilcullen said Mr Tobin initially, told gardai: "It was him or me - I had to do it". He subsequently retracted and said: "All I'm saying now is that I was there and I had a gun."
Det Sgt Kilcullen told the court that the .22 calibre rifle was found in a scrap yard near where the shooting happened.
A number of witnesses to the shooting were not available to give evidence because of the seven-year time lapse.
He said that Mr Tobin joined the Provisional IRA in 1972 and the INLA in the late 1980s and he said that he had been in the Irish Army in the early 1970s.
Sentencing him to five years, backdated to September 1999, Mr Justice Richard Johnson said the court had to take account of the severity of the offence to which Mr Tobin had pleaded guilty.
PA