A Crumlin man appeared before the Special Criminal Court this morning charged with making a threat to kill at a popular Dublin night spot almost two years ago.
Gareth Dunne (25), of Clonard Road in Crumlin, was charged before a special sitting of the court with threatening to kill a man at Clontarf’s Barcode nightclub in North Dublin on August 10th, 2008.
Det Sgt Vincent Martin, Special Detective Unit, told the court of Mr Justice Paul Butler presiding, sitting with Ms Justice Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne that he arrested and cautioned Mr Dunne in the “confines” of the Criminal Courts of Justice Complex in Parkgate Street earlier today.
The court heard that when details of the charge were put to the Dunne, he told the arresting garda, the name of the man against whom the threat is alleged “didn’t ring a bell” and that he “didn’t know him”.
Mr Dunne also said he had “had a breakdown” and had been “suffering from depression for eight months”.
Mr Dunne spoke only to confirm his name.
In July last year, the Special Criminal Court jailed Dunne for four years after he pleaded guilty to INLA membership.
He was arrested in February 2008 after an INLA plot to a kidnap a Cork businessman was foiled by gardaí.
Today lawyers for the State described the charging of Mr Dunne with the particular offence before the Special Criminal Court as “unusual” because it was not a “scheduled offence”.
Michael O’Donovan, solicitor for the DPP, said it was the director’s desire to have the case dealt with by the non-jury court because “ordinary courts” were “inadequate” in the circumstances.
The book of evidence in the case was served on Mr Dunne, and he was remanded in custody to appear before the court again on July 2nd.