Belmullet man (61) threatened to kidnap five-year-old

Belmullet man given suspended sentence after kidnapping threat


A 61-year-old Belmullet man who threatened that a five-year-old boy would go missing unless he received a €2,000 ransom received an 18-month suspended sentence in Castlebar Circuit Court last week.
Thomas Lynskey of 11, Atlantic View, Belmullet anonymously threatened a neighbour and a friend via a ransom letter that the man’s five-year-old son would go missing unless the ransom was paid.
Judge Tony Hunt described it as a ‘harebrained scheme’ but that it caused significant distress for the family threatened. The court heard how Lynskey was caught ‘red-handed’ after he arrived at the location he had specified in the letter – a local church – where Gardaí were waiting.
The court was also told that the only subterfuge undertaken by Mr Lynskey in this regard was to come via a bog route and not by the main route to the church.
Judge Hunt told Lynskey that he ‘brought great shame’ on his family but added that his mind was ‘twisted’ by alcohol because he is not given to criminal conduct. The matter had previously come before Judge Raymond Groarke in July, 2010 and he put the matter back for 12 months with the proviso that if Lynskey was seen drinking alcohol in public or private, he would receive a two-year jail spell.
Eoin Garavan, barrister for Lynskey, said his client was off alcohol since, had undergone alcohol treatment and was the better for being sober.
Judge Hunt said that Lynskey had taken ‘concrete steps’ to address his own demons but that the demand was a particularly nasty one. He handed down an eighteen-month sentence, suspended for eighteen months, on the understanding that Lynskey be of good behaviour and take all reasonable steps to avoid contact with the local family, the victims of the ransom demand.