A SHOPPING centre security guard and former US naval engineer who threatened to kill President George W Bush and blow up the American embassy in Dublin was given a suspended two-year sentence at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Declan Noel O’Shea (38), a native of Kilkenny, with a rental address at Emerson Avenue, Salthill, Galway, had pleaded guilty in May to making hundreds of threatening phone calls to an FBI agent over a nine-year period.
The US and Irish authorities finally stepped in to arrest O’Shea after his threats escalated to include a desire to shoot Mr Bush in the head with a Glock 44 pistol and blow up the embassy.
The court heard that O’Shea had also made a hoax bomb call to the San Diego police department on February 6th, 2004, claiming that he had placed a 700lb bomb on a highway in California. That was followed by further threats to blow up the US guided missile destroyer Stethem.
A psychiatrist from the Central Mental Hospital gave evidence in court yesterday that O’Shea suffers from chronic paranoid schizophrenia, and at the time of these offences had a delusional belief system. He said the nuisance phone calls were “a cry for help” from a very mentally ill man, and if he had been referred to the psychiatric services in the US at the outset these offences might not have occurred.
The psychiatrist said O’Shea was now in remission, was in a stable relationship and was working as a security guard in a Galway shopping centre. He said that with the continued support of his family and monitoring by the appropriate medical services, he would pose a very low risk to society.
Judge Raymond Groarke said the FBI had ignored 500 nuisance phone calls and the special agent who received them had viewed them with annoyance rather than as a threat. The psychiatrist agreed with the judge that the FBI took matters further only when O’Shea escalated his threats to others outside the FBI’s remit.
Judge Groarke heard evidence from O’Shea’s sister, Fiona Glynn, from Kilrush, that she would take direct responsibility for her brother’s behaviour and would ensure he received treatment if he ever showed the slightest sign of regressing.
The judge imposed a two-year sentence on O’Shea, which he suspended for four years on condition that he keeps the peace during that period and comes under the supervision of the probation service.