An Irish farmer who drove a teleporter into his neighbour after a long feud over a noisy gas-powered bird-scarer has been jailed for five years.
County Kerry farmer Michael Ferris attacked his neighbour Anthony O’Mahony on 4 April 2017, described by the Central Criminal Court in Dublin as a “gruesome“ and “horrific“ attack.
Mr Ferris, 63, was sentenced on Monday (3 December) to five years in prison for manslaughter.
During the trial, Mr Ferris said his 73-year-old neighbour had used a gas-powered “crow banger“ for three decades and had ignored requests to stop using it.
The device went off every four-and-a-half minutes. The trial was told that the noise from it “would wake the dead”.
On 4 April 2017, Mr Ferris used his teleporter and drove the prongs of the machinery into Mr O'Mahony's car, killing him.
'Deeply distressing'
Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice on Monday, the victim's niece, Ann O'Carroll said her family believe that justice “was not served.”
“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'Caroll added: “The defence legal team’s use of alleged provocation in this case allowed the jury to return a conviction for the lesser charge of manslaughter.
“To our family it felt like they were using this for a justification for the killing of Anthony and, as a result, we believe it denigrates the value of Anthony’s life. Victim blaming occurs daily in other courts cases in Ireland and this is clearly another example of it in our criminal justice system.
“We would like to thank the guards, our neighbours, family and friends for their support during this difficult time. We are devastated at the loss of Anthony and we will never recover from this,” she said.
