Jim Mansfield Jnr is an Irish businessman who was convicted in January 2022 of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the 9 June 2015 kidnapping of Martin Byrne. [1]
Mansfield Jnr and his two brothers, Tony and PJ are the sons of Jim Mansfield, a prominent Irish property developer and millionaire. [1] Mansfield Jnr left school early, having had difficulty reading. [1]
Mansfield Jnr married young and later separated from his wife. [1]
His brother Tony took over the heavy equipment part of their father's business and Jim was more involved in other areas, such as the Citywest hotel and other facilities, Weston Airport, and a planned convention centre. [1] Jim took on a major role, with PJ acting as assistant. [1] Jim frequently worked with his father. [1]
In 2015 he lost an appeal against a judgement order being granted against him in favour of Allied Irish Banks. [1] [ further explanation needed ]
On 9 June 2015 Martin Byrne was kidnapped by Dessie O'Hare and Declan "Whacker" Duffy and five others. [2] [3] [4] Byrne was a former employee of Jim. [2] [3] [4] Byrne was taken to his family home in Saggart, where he was assaulted in front of his wife and son. [2] [3] [4] They were also told to vacate their home. [2] [3] [4]
Jim Mansfield Jnr was convicted in January 2022 of attempting to pervert the course of justice by telling Patrick Byrne (brother of Martin) to destroy CCTV recordings which showed Martin and Mansfield leaving the Finnstown House Hotel on the morning of 9 June 2015. [2] [3] [4] The recordings were not destroyed and were handed to the Garda Síochána. [2] [3] [4] In February 2022 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court, with the final six months suspended. [2] [3] [4] The sentence was backdated to 17 January 2022. [2] [3] [4]
Michael McKevitt was an Irish republican and paramilitary leader. He was the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Quartermaster General. Due to the Provisional IRA's involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process, he formed the Real IRA in protest. His role in the Real IRA led to him being convicted of directing terrorism as the leader of the paramilitary organisation.
Perverting the course of justice is an offence committed when a person prevents justice from being served on themselves or on another party. In England and Wales it is a common law offence, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Statutory versions of the offence exist in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The Scottish equivalent is defeating the ends of justice, while the South African counterpart is defeating or obstructing the course of justice. A similar concept, obstruction of justice, exists in United States law.
Thomas Murphy, also known as Slab, is an Irish republican, believed to be a former Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. His farm straddles County Armagh and County Louth on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In December 2015, Murphy was found guilty on nine counts of tax evasion following a lengthy investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau of the Republic of Ireland. In February 2016, Murphy was jailed and sentenced to 18 months in prison. One of three brothers, Murphy is a lifelong bachelor who lived on the Louth side of his farm before his imprisonment.
The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.
Gerard "Gerry"Hutch is an Irish criminal. He was the prime suspect for two of the biggest armed robberies in Irish history. Known for leading a "disciplined, ascetic lifestyle" since leaving prison in 1985, he was nicknamed "The Monk" by Veronica Guerin, an investigative journalist who was assassinated in 1996.
Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was a member of the Garda Síochána, the national police force of Ireland. McCabe was killed in Adare, County Limerick on 7 June 1996, by members of the Provisional IRA, during the attempted robbery of a post office van.
Dessie O'Hare, also known as "The Border Fox", is an Irish republican paramilitary who was once the most wanted man in Ireland.
Sir Nigel Hamilton Sweeney KC, styled The Hon. Mr Justice Sweeney, is a High Court judge.
Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state in Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment of the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.
Pearse McAuley is a former Provisional IRA member, who escaped from Brixton Prison in London on 7 July 1991 along with his cellmate Nessan Quinlivan, while awaiting trial on charges relating to a suspected plot to assassinate former brewery company chairman, Sir Charles Tidbury.
Larry Murphy is an Irishman who was jailed in January 2001, having been convicted of kidnapping, repeatedly raping, and attempting to murder a young Carlow woman on 11 February 2000, in the Wicklow Mountains.
Adrian Donohoe was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth, who was fatally shot in Bellurgan on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996, and was afforded a full state funeral.
The Limerick feud is a feud between rival criminal gangs in Limerick City, Ireland. The feud started between two criminals in the year 2000 and then spread to involve several criminal families, mainly the Keane-Collopy gang from St. Mary's Park and the McCarthy-Dundon gang from Ballinacurra Weston. While control of the drug trade is a factor in the feud, according to Garda Superintendent Gerry Mahon, the primary driving force is "absolute hatred by each side for the other". Up to twenty murders and hundreds of shootings, stabbings, and pipe bomb attacks have been attributed to the feud since it began.
Rebecca Marie Watts was a British student from Bristol who was murdered in 2015 at the age of 16. In November 2015, her step-brother, Nathan Matthews, was found guilty of her murder and was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 33 years. His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 17 years in prison, although Hoare had insisted to police that she had nothing to do with the killing, or dismembering Watts' body and hiding the parts. Both Matthews and Hoare were also convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, preventing the lawful burial of a body, perverting the course of justice and possession of two stun guns.
The Hutch–Kinahan feud is a major ongoing feud between two criminal organisations in the Republic of Ireland that has resulted in the deaths of eighteen people, the majority of which have been perpetrated by the Kinahan family. The Hutch gang, led by Gerry Hutch, and the Kinahan Family, led by Daniel Kinahan, are the main participants.
Michael Barr was a 35-year-old Irishman who was shot dead in a pub in Dublin as part of the Hutch–Kinahan feud. Four people have been convicted of his murder.
David "Daithí" Douglas, an Irish zookeeper turned criminal, was shot dead on 1 July 2016. He had convictions dating from the 1980s as well as more recent ones and had survived a shooting the previous November. His murder is part of the Hutch–Kinahan feud. In August 2018 'Fat' Freddy Thompson was found guilty of the murder by the Special Criminal Court.
Freddie Thompson is an Irish criminal connected to the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud who was also convicted of the murder of David Douglas.
Thomas "Bomber" Kavanagh is an Irish criminal and a senior member of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group founded by Christy Kinahan.
The Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG), also known as the Kinahan Cartel, is a major Irish transnational organised crime syndicate alleged to be the most powerful in Ireland and one of the largest organised crime groups in the world. It is also established in the United Kingdom, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. It was founded by Christy Kinahan in the 1990s. His eldest son, Daniel manages the day-to-day operations of the family's criminal group. Estimated reports have credited them with wealth of up to €1 billion.