A Dublin man who was due to go on trial in January for a gangland murder has pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning the man before he was shot dead.
Jeremy Cooper (29), of Dunne Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty in the Central Criminal Court to the false imprisonment of Mr Mark Dwyer (23) at Foster Terrace, Ballybough, Dublin, on December 14th, 1996.
Mr Dwyer was a drug dealer whose body was found in a field in Finglas after the gangland murder in 1996. Gardai said Cooper played a leading role in the abduction but his defence counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, said while Cooper admitted that, he accepted no responsibility for the murder.
The State indicated that it would enter a nolle prosqui on a first count of murder in the indictment against Cooper.
Mr Justice Kinlen said he would pass sentence on Cooper today as he was not satisfied that he had accurate evidence as to the date sentence should run from, taking times spent in custody.
He said it was "incredible" that a detailed printout of Cooper's custody position was not available and that he was being asked to rely on the "totally inadmissible hearsay" given over the phone by an unnamed in Portlaoise prison officer.
A father and son, Joe Delaney and Scott Delaney, are already serving life sentences after they were convicted of Mr Dwyer's murder in separate trials in 1997 and in April this year.
In the trial of the gang's leader, Joe Delaney, Scott Delaney gave evidence against his father.
Mr Dwyer was abducted and beaten to death after being blamed for the disappearance of 40,000 ecstasy tablets imported by the Delaney gang. The court heard that three armed and masked men burst into Dwyer's flat in Ballybough and "tied and trussed like a chicken Mr Mark Dwyer, and then took him away".
Scott Delaney was involved in a ruse during the abduction, whereby he was also hooded, tied up with electric cable and taken away with Mr Dwyer in an attempt to deflect blame from the Delaney gang and towards anti-drug vigilantes.
Mr Dwyer's body was found in a field at Scribblestown Lane, Finglas, with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. The discovery followed a phonecall to the emergency services linking the body to paramilitary targeting of drug dealers.
Scott Delaney was found bound and gagged beside the body but later admitted that this was designed to deflect blame. In court yesterday, Det Sgt Gerry McDonnell told Mr Justice Kinlen that Cooper was engaged by Scott Delaney, through another man, to be part of the kidnap gang. After Mr Dwyer was taken from his flat in Ballybough, he was driven in a stolen BMW to Joe Delaney's house near Naas, Co Kildare, and there was "tortured over an extended period in Joe Delaney's bedroom".
"Jeremy Cooper played a leading role in the gang involved in this abduction," said Det Sgt O'Donnell.
The court heard that Cooper had 22 convictions between 1983 and December 1997.
His last sentence, on December 16th, 1997, was three months for having drugs. The last 15 months of a 1995 three-year sentence for larceny were reimposed on June 13th, 1997, when Cooper faced charges for Mr Dwyer's abduction.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, said Cooper had got a partially reduced sentence in the larceny case. Otherwise he would not have been available to take part in the abduction.
The judge heard that Cooper also recently pleaded guilty to another case of false imprisonment involving a cigarette vendor in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. The businessman and his family were put in a strong-room and held for 18 hours by three armed and masked men, one of them Cooper.
His two co-accused in that case were sentenced to 10 and eight years respectively, while Cooper is awaiting sentence in the coming month.