A man who led a campaign of abuse against his neighbour before leaving her paralysed for life after an attempted murder has been jailed for 15 years.
The Central Criminal Court heard that Dean McCarthy, 33, “burst into” Sinead Connolly’s home with a gun and repeatedly shot his neighbour – someone he has known since childhood – while her eight-year-old daughter hid under the kitchen table.
Sentencing McCarthy yesterday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott had set the headline sentence at 21 years in prison before considering the mitigating factors.
He said the circumstances of the case were “shocking” and the consequences “devastating” for Ms Connolly, 34, and her daughter.
He added: “She sustained injuries which appear to doctors are unlikely to be reversible and that would change her life.
“She has suffered the most catastrophic injuries and almost died. Her life expectancy has been reduced and she has a permanent injury, that is the devastation caused by this case.”
The judge referred to the extreme nature of the violence, the “simmering undercurrent” of threats and bullying by McCarthy of the victim in the lead-up to the shooting.
And he said the fact that a loaded firearm was summoned by the defendant within minutes was “not the situation that any community should be subjected to”.
In her victim impact statement earlier this month, Ms Connolly called McCarthy “an evil, sadistic and cowardly bully”.
She added: “Dean McCarthy is a danger to society. He tried to kill me and even though he didn’t he has obliterated both mine and my family’s life. He deserves the severest punishment in law.”
The court heard that before the shooting, McCarthy had subjected Ms Connolly to a campaign of abuse where he regularly called her a “whore” and had grabbed her by the throat and spat in her face. McCarthy also told her he was going to “leave her in a body bag”.
“Very menacing” CCTV footage of four masked men outside McCarthy’s flat moments before the shooting was shown to the court earlier this month. One man can be seen holding up his fingers “like a pistol or a gun sign”, the court heard.
Dean McCarthy, who was Ms Connolly’s neighbour, with an address at Bernard Curtis House, Bluebell Road, Dublin 12 appeared in court today to be sentenced, having pleaded guilty last January to her attempted murder on March 6, 2021.
McCarthy also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, a G9A Grand Power semi-automatic handgun, with intent to endanger life on the same date at the same location, along with ammunition.
McCarthy has 12 previous convictions, all at District Court level, which include possession of knives, criminal damage and road traffic matters.
Defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC, for McCarthy, previously read a letter of apology to the court on behalf of his client saying: “Things got out of hand quickly and although four masked men tried to force entry to my home that morning to bring me harm, you did not deserve to be hurt like that.
“I sincerely hope you and your daughter fully recover and I wish you both the very best”.
Mr Grehan stressed that this was not “a planned event” and that the case demonstrated “that people should never take the law into their own hands”.
The court has heard Ms Connolly sustained a ballistic wound resulting in a burst fracture of the T3 vertebra and required surgical fixation of her spinal fractures. As a result of this injury, she is paraplegic and has a neurogenic bladder and bowel.
She requires a wheelchair for all mobility and needs to use alternate methods to manage her bladder and bowel. Her life expectancy is also reduced by the injury.
Before delivering the sentence yesterday, Mr Justice McDermott said McCarthy was the victim’s next-door neighbour who he had known since early childhood.
Ms Connolly, he said, received emergency surgery for life-threatening and “very severe” injuries after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body.
He added: “As a result she is paraplegic and she requires a wheelchair for all mobility. These [injuries] are going to lead to further problems in the future such as upper limb pain.”
Referring to Ms Connolly’s victim impact statement, Mr Justice McDermott said it focused on how she and her young daughter, who was in a nearby kitchen during the shooting, had been “physically and emotionally” affected by the incident.
Ms Connolly’s daughter was now being looked after by the victim’s sister which has “broken” the closeness of their relationship. There is also a reliance on others for the care of her daughter into the future as Ms Connolly remains in the National Rehabilitation Centre.
Regarding the relationship between the defendant and the victim, the judge described it as “very poor” and said Ms Connolly had been subjected to “aggressive behaviour” by McCarthy in the months leading up to March 6 – in one instance he grabbed her by the throat and spat in her face.
None of these episodes were known to gardai before March 6, he added.
The judge said it had also emerged in the probation report that there had been “a history” between McCarthy and one of Ms Connolly’s brothers.
Mr Justice McDermott referred to the victim’s request that four men call over to McCarthy’s flat because of the escalating situation in the previous months between them. One of these men in the CCTV footage, said the judge, had made a “clearly threatening gesture” by forming his hand in the shape of a gun.
He said that while the court accepted there was no pre-existing plan to go to Ms Connolly’s flat that day, McCarthy’s plea to attempted murder was an acceptance that he had shot the victim with an intent to kill her.
An aggravating factor in the case, he said, was that the offence was committed in the victim’s home when her eight-year-old child was in the kitchen. McCarthy had “kicked in” the door of Ms Connolly’s flat, shot her within seconds and discharged a round into her as she lay on the couch, he continued.
The judge said the accused had attempted to dispose of the weapon after the shooting and no attempt was made to obtain assistance for the victim.
He also pointed out that the offences were of the “most serious kind” and that Ms Connolly had come very close to death, which was only avoided by the “tiniest of margins”.
The judge said McCarthy’s perception was he felt threatened by the four men who called to his door in an intimidating fashion and made a decision to procure a gun in a very short space of time when he sensed that he was in immediate danger.
McCarthy was sentenced to 16 years in prison with the final year suspended for a period of two years.
In mitigation, Mr Justice McDermott noted the defendant’s admission of guilt and the sincere remorse. He also took into account the accused’s mental health difficulties and history of drug abuse.
The defendant was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of the firearm and six years for possession of ammunition, to run concurrently.
