Sentence adjourned after gang rapist fails to show in court

A GANG rapist who pleaded guilty to threatening to burn down the house of Euromillions winner Delores McNamara’s sister has had his sentencing postponed because he was not brought to court from prison. Thomas O’Neill (24) was identified as the leader of a gang that raped a woman in Cratloe Woods after locking her boyfriend in the boot of their car in 2004. Last December, he admitted threatening to cause criminal damage to the house of Deirdre O’Donovan, a sister of Dolores McNamara who won €115 million in the Euromillions jackpot in 2005.

After pleading guilty to the charge, he was granted “Christmas bail” and was released from prison for two weeks to spend the time with his child and partner who is former girlfriend of notorious Limerick criminal Ger Dundon.
At Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, O’Neill of The Meadows, Murroe, Co Limerick admitted that on July 25, 2011, he threatened Jennifer McCarthy that he would burn her mother, Deirdre O’Donovan, from her home .
Jennifer McCarthy told the court that she saw O’Neill and his co-accused Dean Hehir (25)  sitting in a car alongside her home at 121 Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Road in Limerick. As they drove off, they threatened her while she was in her apartment minding her children.
Dean Hehir made a threat to cause criminal damage to Ms McCarthy’s apartment saying that he was going to “burn you and your kids out of it”. Mr O’Neill  then shouted: “I’m going to burn your mother out of it too”.
Thomas O’Neill was to be sentenced this week at the Circuit Court before Judge Carroll Moran but when the case was called, a Prison Service officer said he had not been brought from Limerick prison to the court.
Defending counsel Brian McInerney said he was ready to proceed and wanted to know why his client wasn’t brought to court.
Unable to provide an explanation, the Prison Service was instructed to have O’Neill in court on January 30.