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PROSECUTORS HAVE BEEN given a date in December to argue that the five-year jail term given to Kerry farmer Michael Ferris for killing his neighbour after a decades-long row about a noisy bird-scarer, was “unduly lenient”.
Dairy farmer Ferris (64) of Rattoo, Ballyduff, Co Kerry, had denied murdering his neighbour Anthony O’Mahony (73) over the use of a crow-banger – used for scaring birds – at Rattoo, on the morning of 4 April 2017.
The Central Criminal Court heard evidence that tillage farmer O’ Mahony suffered “catastrophic injuries” after he was repeatedly stabbed with the prongs of the teleporter while he sat in his car.
A two-week trial was told that the noise from the crow-banger “would wake the dead”.
A jury sitting in Tralee found Ferris not guilty of murder but guilty of Mr O’Mahony’s manslaughter by a majority verdict of 10 to two.
Sentencing Ferris to six years imprisonment with the final year suspended, Ms Justice Carmel Stewart said Ferris had inflicted “horrific and horrendous” injuries on the deceased which defied belief and imagination.
The only consolation for the O’Mahony family was that his death would have been instantaneous in what was a “truly gruesome and horrific” attack, she said.
She backdated Ferris’ sentence to 4 April 2017 when he first went into custody.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is seeking a review of Ferris’ sentence on grounds it was “unduly lenient”.
President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham fixed 2 December next as the date for the hearing. He also listed the DPP’s appeal for hearing in Cork.
Brendan Grehan SC, defending bachelor farmer Ferris, told the Central Criminal Court that his client wished to express remorse and sorrow for his actions that day as well as for the death of Mr O’Mahony.
The defence had argued that there had been cumulative provocation because of the behaviour of the deceased.
In his closing speech to the jury of seven men and five women, Mr Grehan said he made no apology for speaking ill of the dead, which was not a normal thing to do but the community in Rattoo was being “oppressed” by Mr O’Mahony and living in fear of a “totally unreasonable person”.
After the sentence hearing, Mr O’Mahony’s niece, Ann O’Carroll, spoke outside court.
“Our family strongly believe that justice was not served in this case. The just outcome would have been a conviction for murder given that the crime was clearly deliberate and premeditated as outlined during the trial,” she said.
“The trial was a deeply distressing and painful ordeal for our family. Our brother, uncle and friend was taken from us in the most brutal and violent way possible.
“This pain was made worse by the blackening of Anthony’s good name and character during the trial when he was not there to defend himself. And now our pain has been exacerbated by the lenient sentence imposed today,” Ms O’Carroll said.
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Glad all is well!! Wouldn’t like a case of the Christmas fear on that plane..
When I was flying home for Christmas this time last year and waiting to board the plane, I was looking out the terminal window and decided to Wikipedia the model of the plane I was about to fly on, read through its details and then got to the “Incidents” section, decided to keep on reading through all the “incidents”. I consider myself a very comfortable flyer normally but my god that flight was horrendous.. Thought the plane was done for about 50 times, the women next to me must have though I was about to hijack the plane I was so fidgety the entire flight. So a good tip for everyone flying home, don’t look up the crash history of the plane your about to fly on!
I am flying home tomorrow from Edinburgh to Cork on the same model as the one above that caught fire. It’s becoming tradition at this stage to scare myself before the flight. Hello airport bar.
What type of plane was it ?
ATR 72 i believe
It’s a Bombarider Q400
That’s the one Gary. Enjoy the read Tony.
Sorry its a de Havilland Canada DHC-8-402 Q400 not a ATR 72
The one in the story is a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
Spot on Seanie
@Patrick. What kind of bird was it you flew on? Jon Snow believes that just because an Airbus A320 was in a crash it does not mean the A320 is an unsafe aircraft, it might mean that the a320 in question was very old, had poor maintenance, flying somewhere in sub saharan africa were there are no air safety regulations.
Regularly did Edinburgh Cork route this year too. Like a flying matchbox. Very susceptible to turbulence. Great Craic ha
Ah, Happy days then.
You know nothing Jon Snow..
(ATR 72)
I know somewhat Lord Bateman. May the 7 watch over you.
Sound and you too bud
Valium!!!
Patrick you will not be flying to Cork from Edinburgh on the same type of aircraft.
Indeed we call,then flying washing machines , they vibrate and jump around the sky as small planes do and it’s real flying . We flew into cork on one of them yokes and hit wind sheer and boy did that pilot swing it about so that for the last few 100 feet I could see all the way up the runway from my seat at the back of the plane and the pilot was way over to my right , and at last minute squared it off on the runway . To say I was a bit excited would be not exaggerating and I fly regularly but on bigger stuff. Remember we are only 100 years from doing a hop skip and a jump on a cloth covered latice work plane , now we have bars , showers so we are doing well .
‘Because there was no chute’. It’s 3 feet off the ground ffs….
Evacuating a couple of hundred people out of a tin can in a couple of minutes is no easy feat, no matter how close you are to the ground.
While true, this aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 which can carry in the largest version only 86 people.
Neal, it’s not a large jet. It’s a Dash 8 Q400 which can take 78 passengers. If it wasn’t possible to evacuate the plane safely, then the plane wouldn’t be allowed to fly in the EU.
This Mark
Engine fire, cut off power to engine, put out fire in engine, call for emergency landing, land plane on one engine. No problem to pilots they train for this and it’s an automatic reaction. Very scary for passengers though. Big problem for planes is not being to identify source of cabin smoke
Sorcery
Engineering Jon Snow. Designed to fly with one engine out. Flying with 2 engines out – now that’s sorcery. Unless it’s a 4 engined aircraft……then we’re back to engineering.
Blood magic is what it is. Jon Snow says NO!
Well done to the Pilot’s – anyone that call them flying bus drivers is an idiot.
Who flys a purple private plan
Dirk Diggler that’s who !
I’ve flown flyby several times and ive never enjoyed it. The planes are always the propeller ones and everything rattles so much, you start wondering is it safe. There’s no chute as they are so close to the ground, there’s only 2 steps to the plane.
That’s because their fleet are made of mostly turboprops. The fact they have propellors doesn’t mean the aircraft themselves are old WWII aircraft. In fact their fleet is a lot younger than most airlines you’ve probably flown with. Props are inherently noisier but the inner engine workings are the exact same as jet engine. They’re used by airlines,like Flybe, because of their fuel efficiency on the type of routes they operate.
The majority of their fleet is the Dash 8 which is a prop. They have a few jets but they are rarely used on routes to Ireland. They are not old, they are newer than most aircraft that other airlines have, and they are louder because of the propeller.
Well I won’t fly with them again
I never had an on time flight, there was always engine problems and the worse one was being delayed by 8 hours on Christmas eve
So all several times you travelled with them they had engine problems? Are you sure you’re not cursed?
If there is always engine problems for you, then you must be cursed! It is rare for engine failures to happen now with the modern engines, it was common in the past, which is one of the reasons why nearly all aircraft had 3 or 4 engines. As for the delay, it could have been caused by weather, and could happen any airline or aircraft.
Hmm… actually these aircraft would be more susceptible to weather delays then say an A320 so he could have a point.
Wonderful article to read whilst on the way to the airport to fly home for Christmas!!
Why land at an airport further away when you are on fire??
Look at the map shown, it is way closer to Belfast than any other airport.
There’s a range of reasons. The runway at Belfast City airport is a lot shorter than Aldergrove. Aldergrove is only a matter of minutes away anyway. Some aircraft types need to be configured differently for landing in the event of an engine shut down. This is to reduce the drag as the aircraft now has half the thrust available. This reduction in drag will increase the landing distance especially if the runway is wet and the aircraft is heavy. This may be one reason why the crew opted for Aldergrove.
have your say