A PROPERTY developer caught with a rifle outside the Four Courts after his business “went down the drain” has escaped a jail sentence.
Pádraig Hennessy (44), with an address at The Commons, Gowran, Co Kilkenny, had pleaded guilty to possessing a bolt-action .22 calibre rifle without a licence at Inn’s Quay, in Dublin, on September 5th last.
At the Dublin District Court yesterday, Judge Hugh O’Donnell noted the defendant had no prior criminal convictions and that the rifle was not loaded. “You could still kill someone by hitting them with it,” he said. He made an order for the destruction of the rifle and imposed a 12-month probation bond on Hennessy.
The court had heard Defence Forces personnel passing the Four Courts had noticed Hennessy “sitting in a jeep with a rife”. Gardaí were alerted and found Hennessy’s vehicle unoccupied, with the rifle still inside.
The defendant then returned, at which point he was arrested and brought to the Bridewell Garda station to be charged.
He had removed the bolt from the unloaded rifle before he travelled to Dublin, the court heard.
Defence solicitor Murrough O’Rourke told Judge O’Donnell yesterday his client’s wife had died a year previously. Hennessy had “not been given title to some property”, and his construction business “went down the drain”.
Mr O’Rourke submitted Hennessy had co-operated with the Probation and Welfare Service.