THREE MEN HAVE been found guilty of the false imprisonment and assault of Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney.
A fourth man was found not guilty of falsely imprisoning and intentionally causing serious harm to Lunney in 2019.
The first guilty man cannot be identified and is named only as YZ. The other two men are Alan O’Brien (40), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, Dublin 3 and Darren Redmond (27), from Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin 3.
The three men had denied the charges, but the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court today found that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that they were among the group of men who abducted Lunney from near his home and assaulted him in a horse box at a yard in Drumbrade, Co Cavan.
However, Luke O’Reilly (68), with an address at Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, was found not guilty of falsely imprisoning and assaulting Lunney.
All pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Kevin Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan on 17 September, 2019.
Kevin Lunney told the trial that he was bundled into the boot of a car near his home and driven to a container where he was threatened and told to resign as a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings and to put a stop to litigation with which he was involved in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
His attackers stripped him to his boxer shorts, doused him in bleach, broke his shin with two blows of a wooden bat, beat him on the ground, cut his face and scored the letters QIH into his chest with a Stanley knife. They left him bloodied, beaten and shivering on a country road at Drumcoghill in Co Cavan where he was discovered by a man driving a tractor.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt presided over the trial and delivered the court’s judgement today with Judge David McHugh and Judge Gerard Griffin.
This evening, Lunney released a statement thanking gardaí, the PSNI as well as those in his community following today’s verdicts handed down at the Special Criminal Court
A statement from Lunney this evening reads: “On behalf of myself and my family I want to thank the gardaí, PSNI, DPP and the Justices of the Special Criminal Court for their diligence, time and effort in bringing the investigation and trial to this point.
“I also want to thank all those who supported my family at the time of and since the attack, most especially my colleagues at Mannok, the local community and the countless friends and strangers for their prayers and well wishes.
“I want to also express my sincere gratitude to the wider community for their exceptional level of assistance to the authorities throughout the investigation.”
The company formerly known as Quinn Industrial Holdings also welcomed the convictions of the three men.
Now rebranded as Mannok, the firm said in a statement that it hoped it could now operate “free from the threat of violence or intimidation”.
The statement said: “Mannok welcomes today’s verdict in respect of those directly involved in the abduction and torture of our colleague Kevin Lunney.
“These convictions are the result of a detailed joint cross-border investigation by the Garda Siochána and PSNI and we are very grateful to them for their commitment, and to the large number of people in the local community who assisted the authorities.
“We would also like to thank the presiding judges for their detailed consideration of the case and note today’s commentary in respect of the likely involvement of other parties in this terrible act.
“We trust the ongoing investigation into the identity of those who procured this terrible act will yield results and allow Kevin and all of our directors and staff to get on with the job of continuing to run and grow this vital, community-based business free from the threat of violence or intimidation.”
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