A 65-year-old man handed down a suspended sentence for helping the Continuity IRA in a “bizarre” attack on Enniskillen PSNI station has said “it’s in the past”.
Desmond Smith, from Kilnavara Crescent, Co Cavan, was one of two men who Judge Tony Hunt described as “surprising candidates” for involvement in activity of this type when they appeared before the Special Criminal Court last week.
Both Mr Smith and his co-accused, Stephen Hamill (52), of Willow Ridge, Gortnakesh, Co Cavan, pleaded guilty to knowingly rendering assistance to an organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA in the performance or furtherance of an unlawful object in March 2021.
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Mr Smith, who has no previous convictions for any offences, told the Sunday World he wanted to move on with his life when a reporter called to his home.
“It’s in the past,” he said before saying he was “not interested” in being interviewed about the bizarre case.
There was no answer at Mr Hamill’s home when the Sunday World called this week.
Desmond Smith tells our reporter Alan Sherry he wants to leave his conviction ‘in the past’
Neither man was alleged in court to be members of CIRA and both took to the stand to vow that they would “disassociate” themselves from criminal organisations and Republican paramilitaries. They swore that they “repudiated” unlawful organisations “and all their acts”.
Mr Smith was described in court by his barrister as a “decent man caught up in these activities”.
It is unusual to hand down suspended sentences in cases involving dissident republican activity but Judge Hunt said given the men took to the stand to say they repudiated unlawful organisations and entered early guilty pleas, he felt on balance suspended sentences were warranted.
The case revolves around a supposed attack on Enniskillen PSNI station in March 202 which was subsequently claimed by the CIRA but went unnoticed by police at the time. A call made to the media about the supposed attack led to a search during which an improvised “slam gun” was found close to the station.
Before sentencing the pair, the judge noted there was a “bizarre element” to the cases as authorities were unaware of the activities involved until phone calls made were followed up and the relevant materials were found.
However, he said lending assistance to the kind of organisation with which the two men became embroiled was “a very serious matter”.
Mr Justice Hunt imposed a sentence of four years in respect of Hamill but suspended this for a period of four years on condition that he enter into a bond of €100.
He sentenced Smith to two years and nine months imprisonment and suspended this for a period of three years.
Smith and Hamill were both arrested in February last year by members of the Special Detective Unit of An Garda Síochána.
Detective Garda Sergeant Ronan Judge told a previous hearing that between March 13 and 16 2021, a sequence of phone calls were made to media outlets in the North and border region from different SIM cards by callers purporting to be from the CIRA.
The detective told the court that a caller claimed a weapon had been fired from a “device” across the shore from Enniskillen PSNI station and said that there was no intention to harm civilians.
On March 17, 2021, detectives searching near the station found an improvised device, made of a telescopic pipe inserted into a wider pipe, which was activated by “smacking” the base of the device. Det Sgt Judge said this device was known as a “slam gun”.
In February 2021, Hamill had gone to a hardware store in Cavan and purchased “telescopic” pipes, similar to those discovered used in the attack on the PSNI station.
A Garda investigation, run in conjunction with the PSNI, used shop receipts, CCTV and interviews to identify Hamill buying SIM cards and phone top-ups in Cavan town in March 2021.
A search of Hamill’s home led to a number of phones being seized and to his arrest. In an interview, Hamill admitted that he had also put someone “intimately” related to him in position to buy phone top-ups.
A search of Smith’s home found a number of phones and a handset used in some of the phone calls.
The court previously heard that Smith has no previous conviction, while Hamill has three for road traffic offences.