Judge slams criminals manipulating children into crime

By Tom Tuite

“All state resources should be used to catch and lock them up,” was the fierce condemnation from the president of the Circuit Court as he branded drug barons using children as foot soldiers as being “like a cancer”.

Judge Keenan Johnson’s comments came during the case of two youths involved in a drug intimidation shooting at a house in Mullingar.

One of the pair (17) also carried out attacks on houses, torched four cars and carried out a drug intimidation campaign across three midlands counties; he was handed a six-year suspended sentence.

That youth, now 17, and a second boy, the same age, pleaded guilty to recklessly discharging the home-made “slammer” shotgun at about 1.30pm on July 14 at Ardleigh Park in the town.

The shooter admitted a further charge of criminal damage to the door of the house.

The pair cannot be named because they are minors with the right to anonymity.

They were 16 and had no prior convictions at the time of the incident, Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court heard.

One youth also admitted to criminal damage and arson offences in 2025 targeting seven properties mainly in Westmeath and also in Offaly and Longford.

The same teenager also pleaded guilty to possessing a black firing handgun, blank rounds of ammunition and €7,000 of cannabis.

Judge Johnson described the incidents as “really shocking and very, very disturbing”.

The case reminded him of the Charles Dickens character Fagin and his team of child offenders, but added that these figures are “far more sinister and a lot more dangerous”.

Sentencing, he rebuked the “malignant forces” who “prey on children like the accused plying them with drugs, building debts, to manipulate them to act as their foot soldiers in completion of their nefarious activities”.

He characterised them as “the lowest of low”.

Detective Garda Kevin Lennon was part of a team assembled to probe incidents of arson and criminal damage connected to drug debts in counties Westmeath, Offaly, and Longford.

In evidence, he said that the youth was charged after his home was searched and his phone was seized as part of another investigation into a drug and firearm find.

An examination of the device uncovered a series of videos and messages linking the boy to the drug debt intimidation incidents in Mullingar, Tullamore, Rochfortbridge, Finea, and Edgeworthstown from February to May 2025.

A video on the teenager’s phone showed him destroying evidence by setting a petrol can and gloves on fire.

The footage captured the sound of victims screaming. His phone messages contained discussions with another individual about whether he would produce a gun if occupants came out of the houses.

Victim impact statements were read to the court, including one from a woman who said she feared for her baby’s life. Another victim stated she was left living in fear, and the court heard that some families were left with boarded-up windows until they could afford replacements.

A van was destroyed and three other vehicles were badly damaged.

Two videos of the incident were found on the boy’s phone, including a message from a character known in his interactions with the teenager as either “D” or “Bob Marley”.

The teenager had explained that some of the videos were filmed on his phone while others were sent to him. He told gardaí he was afraid to speak out, believing he would end up dead, and stated that “it was them or me”, adding that individuals higher up the chain had drawn him into the activity and placed him under intense pressure.

The court heard that he had either scouted, planned, or taken part in the incidents, and that each of the houses had been targeted over drug debts.

His co-accused was the shooter in the improvised gun attack on a house in Mullingar last year.

Covered with snoods on approach to the house, they fled straight after the gun blast, which wrecked the front door.

Another young man, the target, ran after the shooter and followed him into a local shop, where they got into a tussle.

He demanded to know who was behind it, and the youth told him, “I can’t tell you, or he is going to kill me”. He later said he was afraid for his family.

The other youth dropped the gun and retrieved it after fleeing, leaving it at another location to be collected.

Both defendants told the court they had drug debts at the time and were forced to take part in the gun attack.

The shooter had already served a period in custody on remand in a detention centre, and Judge Johnson sent him in custody until a date in December, after which he will have a three-year sentence suspended over him for the next five years.

His co-accused, who faced the bulk of the charges, stopped coming to garda attention after moving and getting work.

He received a series of concurrent sentences, the longest being six years on condition he does not reoffend in the next eight years.

He was ordered to pay €14,500 to his victims in a series of instalments to be completed by June 1, 2027.

The teen will also have to complete 240 hours of community service. The judge indicated that the suspended sentences will also come into effect after he turns 18 and the order is to be finalised in December.

The judge noted their remorse and the severe pressure that led to them being “preyed upon by sinister forces”.