A man who had claimed he was an active soldier in the IRA and threatened to shoot two sisters unless their family paid him €50,000 was yesterday jailed for four years at Trim Circuit Criminal Court.
After Seán Blanche (53), of Market Street, Kells, and Tankardstown, Navan, Co Meath, was jailed, the family he had terrorised said the first time they had ever seen him was when he was first charged and appeared before the District Court.
Mr Kevin Kidney, a brother of the Leinster rugby team coach Declan Kidney, said that it was his wife, Mary, who took the phone call from Blanche during which he said he wanted the money, and if they did not pay within two weeks their daughters "will be killed".
It emerged that Blanche had begun a relationship with a woman who at the time was a friend of the Kidney family.
Blanche pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to Mr Kevin Kidney's car at Kilmainham, Kells, and to demanding money with menaces. The offences happened in May and June 2003 respectively.
Passing sentence, Judge Raymond Groarke said Blanche had first become known to the Kidneys in 2001, and they had heard that he was "an active soldier in the IRA".
This was an impression the family had, and one Blanche had "canvassed and encouraged, albeit he did not know the victim or his family directly" .
For no reason at all, the judge said, Blanche had subjected the family to having their cars damaged, and then in June 2003, he called Mrs Kidney and demanded the money.
An earlier court heard from Det Garda Ray Shorthall that two calls had been made in the space of 15 minutes, and they were made from the GPO in Dublin.
The judge praised the "excellent work of the Garda, the manner of the investigation and the speed of his arrest".
He recognised that Blanche had expressed great regret and remorse, and recognised that his behaviour had been outrageous. He was off drink and was undergoing counselling.
"It is too easy to behave in this way, and too easy to terrorise people in the manner in which he terrified the Kidney family," he said as he jailed him for nine months for damaging the car and to four years for demanding money with menaces.
The final 18 months of the sentence were suspended on condition he remain under the supervision of the Probation and Welfare Service, stay off drink, out of trouble and never approach or seek to contact any member of the Kidney family.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Kevin Kidney said the judge had been "fantastic, trying to take all things into consideration. The gardaí did a fantastic job and their early arrest of him did reduce the stress for us considerably."