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Jim Mansfield jnr found guilty of perverting the course of justice

CTN News

 

Businessman Jim Mansfield jnr has been taken into custody after he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by ordering the destruction of CCTV footage showing him with his former employee Martin Byrne on the morning that Mr Byrne was kidnapped by Dessie O’Hare and Declan ‘Whacker’ Duffy.

The 54-year-old was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court of a separate charge of conspiracy to falsely imprison Mr Byrne, who had previously provided security for the family business. The court found that although Mansfield had knowingly involved O’Hare and Duffy in his attempts to recover assets lost in the 2008 economic crash, there was insufficient evidence to show Mansfield knew the two men planned to kidnap Mr Byrne.

Delivering the verdict of the three-judge, non-jury court on Monday, Mr Justice Alex Owens said that Mansfield lied to gardaí when he said he did not arrange the meeting with O’Hare and Duffy which ended with Mr Byrne being kidnapped. But he added that the court cannot exclude the possibility that Mansfield was misled by O’Hare as to the purpose of the meeting.

He added that the court “has no way of knowing how much knowledge he had of the forces he would unleash by involving” O’Hare and Duffy, whom Mr Justice Owens described as “very dangerous players”.

O’Hare was jailed for seven years in 2019 for falsely imprisoning Mr Byrne. Duffy was jailed for six years in 2018 for the same offence.

A sentencing hearing for Mansfield will be held on February 7th next.

Mr Justice Owens said that CCTV footage from Finnstown House Hotel in west Dublin on June 9th,…

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