There was uproar in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when a drugs vigilante who supplied the gun used to kill heroin dealer "Chester" Beatty was given a three-year suspended sentence.
Beatty's daughter shouted "You killed my da but you didn't have the bottle to do it yourselves", when Judge Frank O'Donnell imposed the suspended sentence on John Dwyer (57) and remanded his brother, Christopher (51), on bail for sentence on May 9th next.
A scuffle ensued while, still shouting at the Dwyers, she was ushered out of the court by family members and gardai.
Both men, with addresses at Beresford Street, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a .22 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver on November 30th, 1997, the day Beatty was murdered.
Christopher Dwyer had 10 previous convictions. The last of these was in 1973 when he was given a suspended sentence for a manslaughter.
John Dwyer had no previous convictions.
The court heard the Dwyers blamed Beatty for the death of Christopher's stepson, Mark Dwyer, who was mutilated and murdered by Joe Delaney and his son Scott, on December 14th, 1996. Both Delaneys are serving life sentences for this murder.
Det Sgt Eunan Dolan told prosecuting counsel Mr Tom O'Connell that Christopher Dwyer was traumatised after the death of his stepson and became obsessed by the case.
Det Sgt Dolan told Mr O'Connell that both Dwyers insisted in the course of their detention that the gun was intended to "frighten" but not murder Beatty.
He said Beatty was drinking upstairs with a number of friends in the Wild Heather pub on Mary Street on November 30th, 1997.
Christopher Dwyer had been observing Beatty for some time and was drinking downstairs in the same pub. Det Sgt Dolan said Dwyer left the pub and went to his address nearby on Beresford Street, where he met his brother John and two other men. These men took possession of the .22 calibre revolver.
The men went to the pub where a gunman wearing a balaclava opened fire on Beatty. The firearm was found lying beside the dead body.
Christopher Dwyer was arrested later in a Waterford hotel. Det Sgt Dolan said Mr Mark Comerford was later charged with the murder but shot himself on the morning his trial was scheduled to start at the Central Criminal Court.