An “important and trusted member” of an organised crime gang who was arrested with a loaded gun in Dublin’s north inner city has been jailed for seven and a half years.
Sentencing Paul Beatty at the Special Criminal Court, presiding judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt said "actual harm was only prevented due to the timely intervention of gardaí".
The three-judge court previously heard the defendant was under surveillance as he cycled along the banks of the Royal Canal, carrying a revolver wrapped in a plastic bag.
Beatty (32), with an address at Eugene Street, Dublin 8 admitted last December to unlawful possession of a .38 special calibre Smith & Wesson revolver at Charlemont Parade, Dublin 3 on June 2nd, 2018. The offence is contrary to the provisions of Section 27A(1) of the Firearms Act, 1964.
The possession of five rounds of special calibre ammunition recovered from the chamber of the gun was taken into consideration.
The non-jury court has also heard that Beatty was jailed for seven years in 2010, having pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
Mr Justice Hunt said the accused’s conduct had been “clearly intended” to evade gardaí and this offence had been committed by a man with “previous form”.
The judge said the use of the firearm had been “proximate” as it was loaded at the time but he had to extend the benefit of the doubt as to whether Beatty was the “ultimate user”.
Having regard to the gravity of the offence, the judge said the headline sentence was 10 years in prison.
Mr Justice Hunt said that the primary mitigating factor was his early guilty plea and he discounted 25 per cent from the headline sentence.
A Probation Service report put Beatty at a high risk of re-offending over the next 12 months, with the main areas of risk being his previous history of offending, his struggles with drug addiction and the fact he has spent a significant part of his adult life in prison, outlined Mr Justice Hunt.
Beatty has 71 previous convictions which include endangerment, possession of drugs and dangerous driving.
“In the case of a repeat offender there is no room for further mitigation. In our view any lesser sentence calculated and departed from the above would be rightly regarded as unduly lenient,” he explained.
Mr Justice Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Ann Ryan, sentenced Beatty to seven and a half years imprisonment, backdated to June 2nd, 2018 when he went into custody.