Man caught holding €100,000 told Gardai that he would be murdered
By Sonya McLean
A man who was caught holding over €100,000 in cash told gardai he was threatened that he would be murdered as his cousin had been if he refused to hold the money.
Alan Kenny's (26) cousin, James Kenny McDonagh, was abducted in October 2011 and his body was found four months later in the Dublin mountains.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court
Kenny of Islandbridge Court, Islandbridge, Dublin was brought up along with his late cousin after his own parents died from addictions. He told gardai he had run up a small debt from his use of cannabis and was warned that if he didn't hold the cash he would end up “in the Dublin Mountains” like his cousin.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to being in possession of €106,950 believed to be the proceeds of criminal conduct on January 12, 2017. He has no previous convictions.
Garda Noel Donoghue told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that Kenny was in the house when gardai searched it having secured a warrant.
A weighing scales, plastic cut offs and bundles of cash were found in a plastic bag and a small safe in his bedroom. A taser type of firearm was also found.
Kenny was arrested but nothing came out of his subsequent interviews with gardai.
Gda Donoghue agreed with Matthias Kelly SC, defending, that his client was holding the money for someone else.
He accepted his cousin had been abducted and his body later found in the Dublin Mountains having been shot in the head.
He accepted that Kenny claimed that his cousin owned the stun gun which he had for his own protection. He agreed that Kenny’s fingerprints were not on the gun.
Mr Kelly said his client was orphaned at four years old. His grandmother cared for him until her death when he was eight years old which was when he went to live with his Aunt Jackie, James’s mother.
He said his aunt had left James’s bedroom as a shrine. She subsequently died and Kenny had been left the house. He never got rid of the stun gun, although he knew it was there.
Judge Melanie Greally adjourned the case to December 18 next and ordered a report from the Probation Service for that date.
She remanded Kenny on continuing bail for sentence.
