#glenpark estate

[tinacalder]

Kangaroo On The Loose In Omagh, Volunteers Needed For Antrim Coast Half Marathon & Boyzone Star To Leave Show Business

Kangaroo On The Loose In Omagh, Volunteers Needed For Antrim Coast Half Marathon & Boyzone Star To Leave Show Business @belfast247onair news

Appeal as kangaroo is on the loose in Omagh A kangaroo is currently on the loose in Co Tyrone after escaping an enclosure at the Glenpark Estate on Sunday. Two wallabies arrived at the venue at the weekend, but owner Richard Beattie says one of them was startled and managed to escape.  The kangaroo was last seen making off in the direction of Omagh on the main Gortin Road on Sunday…

[squashed-fox]

[drubblernews-blog]

New Post has been published on http://drubbler.com/2017/02/27/five-sentenced-for-cattle-dealer-kidnap-and-blackmail/

Five sentenced for cattle dealer kidnap and blackmail

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Image caption The judge said Robert Vevers (left) ‘effectively sold his soul to the devil’

Five men involved in a kidnap and blackmail plot, in which a cattle dealer was held captive for five days, have been given suspended sentences.

The victim, who was targeted over an alleged unpaid livestock debt, was tied up and kidnapped at gunpoint outside Omagh, County Tyrone, in 2012.

The gang allegedly threatened to cut off the victim’s fingers during blackmail phone calls to his father.

The court heard his father replied “cut away”, hung up and called the police.

One of the accused, Scottish businessman Robert Vevers, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, false imprisonment and blackmail.

‘Sold his soul’

The 59-year-old, from Crawick in Dumfries, claimed the victim owed him a genuine debt of £227,000 after a livestock deal.

But by contacting criminals in Dublin to try to recover the money, Vevers had “effectively sold his soul to the devil”, according to the judge at Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Antrim.

The judge said Vevers’ decision to take the law into his own hands was an “idiotic moment”.

Image caption Paul Gogan was kidnapped in a remote part of County Tyrone

The victim, Paul Gogan, originally from Co Meath, travelled from his home in Essex to Northern Ireland in 2012 in the belief that he would be viewing a meat factory near Ballymena, County Antrim.

Vevers accompanied the cattle dealer on his trip, but instead, Mr Gogan was driven to a farmyard near Omagh where an armed gang was waiting to kidnap him.

The victim and his family did not engage with the prosecution and there were no victim impact statements, something which the judge said was “almost unprecedented” in this “unusual, difficult and indeed remarkable case”.

Vevers was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison suspended for three years.

The judge said that as Vevers had already served nine months in custody and had been on bail for the past 18 months it would be unfair to send him back in jail.

He said he had paid a very high price, his good name was in tatters and his reputation lost.

Image caption The victim was held in a shipping container

The court heard that during his ordeal, Mr Gogan was tied up at gunpoint, hooded and bundled into a van and driven to a remote site used as a motorsport track off the Tullycar Road near Castlederg.

He was held in a shipping container, bound by cable ties, a few miles from the Irish border.

A ransom of £400,000 was then demanded from his father, Robert Gogan.

After they threatened to cut off his son’s fingers, Mr Gogan alerted Gardaí (Irish police).

The court was told the gang then discovered the debt they were trying to recover was substantially less than what they had been told.

It was eventually agreed that 100,000 euros (£85,000) would be left at Bellewstown Racecourse and Paul Gogan was released in Drogheda, County Louth.

Image caption The sentences were handed down at Antrim Courthouse

The court was told that Vevers’ business and marriage had collapsed and his health had suffered as a result of the alleged debt owed to him by Mr Gogan.

The prosecution claimed that Vevers contacted criminals in Dublin who, in turn, recruited men in Omagh to assist them in the kidnap and extortion plot.

‘Not Good Samaritans’

Four men from County Tyrone admitted taking part in the plot.

Patrick Noel McCaul, 44, from Slieveard Rise in Omagh and Matthew McLean, 27, from Glenpark Road in Omagh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit blackmail.

They were sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years.

Robert McLean, 22, from Deverney Park, Omagh and Martin Arkinson, 21, from Ballycolman Estate, Strabane, entered guilty pleas to assisting offenders by buying food and telephone top-up cards.

McClean received an 18-month sentence and Arkinson a 12-month sentence, both suspended for three years.

McCaul’s defence lawyer said the men before the court were not the main instigators and that they thought that an attempt was being made to recover “a genuine debt”.

In response the judge pointed out that “they were not being good Samaritans” to which the lawyer agreed “it was unlawful”.

A prosecution lawyer said the men from Dublin were the central players but were not before the court.

He said it would be their intention that they would be extradited, but he later confirmed that the men had been arrested and interviewed by gardaí but Irish prosecutors had decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute them in the Republic of Ireland.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();