The Special Criminal Court yesterday turned down an application by one of the four men jailed for the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe to have his 11-year sentence backdated.
Michael O'Neill (47), Lisheen Park, Patrickswell, Co Limerick, was jailed for 11 years by the court last February for the manslaughter of Det Garda McCabe at Adare, Co Limerick, on June 7th, 1996.
Det Garda McCabe (52), a father of five, died in a hail of bullets after a gang of raiders rammed an unmarked Garda car escorting a post office van delivering £80,000 to post offices in Limerick.
Mr Michael O'Higgins, for O'Neill, said the court had sentenced Kevin Walsh and Pearse McCauley to 14 years and Jeremiah Sheehy to 12 years. Walsh, McCauley and Sheehy had previous convictions but O'Neill had none and had been in custody since June 1996.
Mr O'Higgins said the court had decided to impose sentences at the upper end, at 14 years, and at the lower end, at 11 years. With re mission taken into account, the effect would be that O'Neill would serve 27 months fewer in custody than Walsh, but because of the time he had been in custody, the actual difference would be 6 1/2 months. Mr O'Higgins applied for O'Neill's sentence to be backdated 20 1/2 months before February 5th this year when the 11-year sentence was passed.
Mr Justice Johnson said the court had no jurisdiction to vary the sentence order unless there was a blatant anomaly, mistake or confusion in the original sentence, none of which existed in this case.