A criminal who was found by armed gardaí in a back garden cabin, where a loaded handgun had been stashed, has been sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court on Monday.
Trevor Byrne (40), who was informed by gardaí of an enduring, credible threat to his life and claimed he had the gun for his own protection, also had just over €3,000 in his pocket when he was arrested, his trial had heard.
Byrne has 40 previous convictions. In April 2005 when he was convicted of various offences including possession of a loaded double-barrel shotgun, unlawful seizure of vehicles and robbery of an off-licence. During this robbery, Byrne pointed a gun at gardaí, got into an unmarked Garda car in a bid to escape and also held a gun to a taxi-driver’s head as he was pursued by gardaí. He received sentences ranging from two to eight years for those offences and was released in November 2009.
Byrne, of Cappagh Road, Finglas, Dublin 11, had denied the current charges against him and was six days into his trial at the three-judge Special Criminal Court when his barrister, Conor Devally SC, asked for his client to be re-arraigned.
Byrne then pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded 9mm Luger-caliber Radom 35 firearm at a house in Woodford Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 on November 15th, 2019. Three other charges of possession of ammunition and €3,050 in cash that he was reckless towards, believed to be, or knew to be the proceeds of crime, were taken into consideration at his sentencing on Monday.
The trial heard that the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) raided the house in Woodford Grove at around 11.30pm on November 15th and found Byrne in a cabin to the rear of the property, where he was sitting on a couch alongside another male.
A detective garda from the ERU told Mr John Byrne BL, prosecuting, that he pointed his weapon at Trevor Byrne while he was sitting on the couch and shouted “armed gardaí, armed police” before ordering him to the ground, as other gardaí dealt with the second male.
“There was no response at all, he [Trevor Byrne] just sat there looking at me,” the Det Gda said.
The witness said that after two more warnings and no reaction he holstered his weapon, pulled Trevor Byrne from the couch and put him in a face-down position on the ground.
When Byrne was taken to Clondalkin Garda station he refused to engage with the station jailer and exercised his right to silence when interviewed.
A search of the cabin later revealed a gun underneath the couch that Byrne and the other male had been sitting on. There were five bullets in the magazine and one in the chamber. More ammunition was found during the search and Det Sgt Tom Anderson said that he searched Byrne before placing him into a Garda patrol car and found €3,050 in his tracksuit pocket.
The State was also expected to bring evidence that a DNA profile on the gun matched Byrne’s DNA and that a pair of gloves, a hold-all and a balaclava found in the cabin had DNA matching Byrne’s.
Mr Devally said that Byrne had the gun for his own protection and that he had fled Ireland in 2016 because of a threat to his life.
Mr Devally said that Byrne had endured hardship from a young age, had got involved with drug use and had lost members of his family.
In passing sentence, presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that 10 years’ imprisonment was an appropriate pre-mitigation headline sentence but that he would give a 10 per cent discount for the guilty plea.
Mr Justice Hunt said he could not see a sentence of less than nine years due to it being Byrne’s second offence for possession of a weapon – the maximum sentence being 14 years’ imprisonment.
Mr Justice Hunt backdated the sentence to November 2019, when Byrne was taken into custody.