CONVICTED gang rapist, Thomas O’Neill, has been jailed for two years for having cocaine and heroin for sale or supply in Limerick City.
O’Neill, (35), of Lenihan Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, admitted six counts under the Misuse of Drugs Act, including possession of heroin and cocaine for sale or supply, and simple possession of cocaine and heroin, at Hyde Avenue, Limerick, on dates in June 2023.
O’Neill’s sentencing hearing, which was held before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, heard that an armed Garda unit observed O’Neill allegedly drug dealing while leaning into the rear of a Hyundai Tucson car, outside a house at Hyde Avenue.
Gardaí seized the car and found 23 heroin deals and 18 deals of cocaine bagged up on the rear seat. Gardaí also obtained CCTV evidence showing O’Neill and two others engaging in alleged drug dealing.
Gardaí searched O’Neill’s home and found seven more heroin deals, drug paraphernalia, as well as a set of keys to and registration certificate for the Hyundai Tucson.
After his arrest O’Neill told Gardaí the drugs were for his own use, that he smoked ten bags of heroin a day, and that the deal bags were for “bird seed and seeds for flowers”.
Prosecuting barrister, John O’Sullivan, said that while the total amount of drugs seized from O’Neill (€616) might have been regarded as a low amount by some, it demonstrated O’Neill was actively dealing cocaine and heroin.
Mr O’Sullivan described O’Neill as a “veteran of the criminal justice system since he was a juvenile”, and he highlighted O’Neill’s conviction and nine year sentence in 2004 for his leading role in “a gang rape that achieved considerable notoriety”.
O’Neill was one of four youths and an adult man who raped a woman at Cratloe Woods, Co Clare, on January 23, 2004.
O’Neill and his accomplices ordered a couple out of their car and assaulted both with a golf club. The man was ordered into the boot of the car while the four youths took turns raping the woman in the car.
O’Neill and the others pleaded guilty to rape, false imprisonment and assault causing harm, and were jailed for a total of 31 years.
Mr O’Sullivan told O’Neill’s sentencing hearing for drug dealing that O’Neill had previous convictions for violent disorder, assault with intent to cause bodily harm, false imprisonment, intimidating a witness, robbery, having a mobile phone in jail, affray, possessing drugs for sale or supply, and road traffic offences.
O’Neill’s barrister, Liam Carroll BL, told the drugs sentencing hearing that O’Neill was struggling with heroin addiction at the time and that he is currently on a drugs treatment programme in prison and engaging in education and cookery classes inside.
