SICK messages laughing about the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe have been posted on Facebook after one of his killers was cleared of a weapons offence on Wednesday.
Convicted killer Michael O’Neill (63), had been accused of producing a wheel brace in a public place during a dispute in Ennis, Co. Clare.
O’Neill – who served an 11-year jail term for Garda McCabe’s manslaughter – can be seen smiling joyfully on Facebook outside court, while he is embraced by two tracksuit clad men.
Underneath the photograph, one Moyross native has written: “Well done. Jerry mcabe haha..thuglife son.”
O’Neill was one of four people convicted of the June 1996 manslaughter of Det Garda McCabe, shot dead by members of an IRA gang at Adare, Co. Limerick.
This week, Ennis District Court was told that O’Neill, from Abbeyville, Ennis, Co. Clare, was charged with producing a wheel brace in the course of a dispute capable of inflicting serious injury in a public place and engaging in threatening, abusive words with intent to provoke a breach of the peace last January 21.
Sergeant Mark Murphy said O’Neill “took the law into his own hands” and was “the main aggressor”.
Solicitor Tara Godfrey said O’Neill produced the wheel brace to repel five men away from his property after believing one of the men damaged his car.
Ms Godfrey made an application to have the case dismissed, saying: “The charge is predicated on O’Neill doing something in a public place. Sgt Murphy confirmed in evidence that O’Neill wasn’t in a public place – that he was in the driveway.”
