Kevin Lunney subjected to 'ordeal of callous brutality and gratuitous violence'

IN THE COURTS

Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney was subjected to an "ordeal of callous brutality and gratuitous violence" designed to terrify and intimidate him and to leave him with injuries he would never forget, a barrister has told the Special Criminal Court.

Sean Guerin SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), began his closing arguments to the three-judge, non-jury court this morning. He said the charge of causing serious harm, which the four accused deny, is borne out by the injuries suffered by Mr Lunney including knife wounds to his face and chest and a broken leg sustained following two blows of a blunt instrument.

Mr Guerin said: "In this case there is no cause for dwelling on the legal features of those charges. The account given of the ordeal was a remarkable one, mostly for what he said happened to him, which was an ordeal of callous brutality and gratuitous violence inflicted with calculated ease, almost calmly, and with a distinct sense of purpose."

He said the offences may have been carried out to "service the ends of other persons" but there was no doubt what their purpose was: "To terrify and intimidate Mr Lunney and to leave him with injuries, which would never allow him to forget the ordeal or the purpose it sought to achieve."

A 40-year-old man named as YZ; Alan O’Brien (40), of Shelmalier Road, East Wall, Dublin 3; Darren Redmond (27), from Caledon Road, East Wall, Dublin 3; and Luke O’Reilly (68), with an address at Mullahoran Lower, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, have all pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Lunney at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan, on September 17, 2019.

Mr Lunney has told the court that he was bundled into the boot of a car near his home in County Fermanagh and driven to a container where he was threatened, beaten and told to resign as a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings. His abductors stripped him to his boxer shorts, doused him in bleach, broke his leg with two blows of a wooden bat, cut his face and scored the letters QIH into his chest. They left him bloodied, beaten and shivering on a country road at Drumcoghill in the Crossdoney area of Co Cavan where he was discovered by a man driving a tractor.

Mr Guerin is continuing his speech before Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, and Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge David McHugh.