THE three men found guilty of the kidnapping and serious assault of Mannok director Kevin Lunney have been sentenced to between 18 and 30 years in prison
Darren Redmond (25), of Caledon Road, East Wall, in Dublin, Alan O’Brien (39), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, and a third man who cannot be named for legal reasons and known as ‘YZ’, were convicted at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in November of false imprisonment and assault causing actual bodily harm to Mr Lunney, following a lengthy trial.
A fourth man, Luke O’Reilly (66), of Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, has been acquitted of the charges as the three-judge, non-jury trial found there was reasonable doubt that he knew what had been planned.
The charges related to the horrific incident on September 17, 2019 when Mr Lunney was kidnapped from outside his Kinawley home as he returned from work, bundled into a car boot, taken over the border, and tortured.
During this ordeal Mr Lunney was beaten, threatened, cut with a knife, had the letters ‘QIH’ carved into his chest, was doused in bleach, and had his leg broken with a wooden bat. During this he was encouraged by his attackers to resign his position at the company then called Quinn Industrial Holdings.
Afterwards Mr Lunney was dumped on a country road in the Crossdoney area of Cavan.
All four men had denied the charges against them. Defence barristers had asked the court to consider direct acquittals for the defendants, claiming there was a lack of evidence in the trial.
Today, they man known as YZ, who had his anonymity order extended in court last week, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
O’Brien was told he must serve 25 years, while Redmond was sentenced to 18 years in prison with the last three years suspended.
For more on this story see this Wednesday’s Herald.
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