Drug addict who turned gun on dealer jailed for eight years

Stephen Bourke and Eoin Reynolds

A cocaine addict who said he was acting in self-defence when shot dead a drug dealer with his own gun – before “trussing up” his body in a suitcase and preparing to dump it – has been jailed for eight years.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott on Thursday handed down a nine-year prison term, with the final year suspended, to Dean Caffrey for the manslaughter of Sean McCarthy in Drumcondra in Dublin on August 2nd, 2022.

Caffrey told gardaí during interviews that on the day McCarthy died, the deceased came to his apartment carrying a gun and in an agitated state. Caffrey said McCarthy accused him of stealing heroin and threatened that if he didn't give him €5,000 he would "leave in a body bag".

Caffrey said he lunged for the gun when McCarthy became momentarily distracted by a noise and in a struggle, the gun went off, causing the fatal injury.

Pathologist's report

A pathologist's report confirmed that McCarthy died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

McCarthy, who was aged 28 when he died, was a drug dealer known to gardaí.

Caffrey (38) of Beaucort, Achill Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 went on trial in October last year after he pleaded not guilty to McCarthy's murder at Beaucort on August 2nd, 2022. A jury found him not guilty of the murder but guilty of manslaughter by a majority, ten to two, verdict.

Caffrey, Mr Justice Paul McDermott noted at today’s Central Criminal Court sentence hearing, had been a drug user since 2013 and a cocaine addict since 2016.

He noted that there was no attempt by Caffrey to seek medical help for McCarthy, even though the pathologist’s view was that death had not been immediate.

He noted that gardaí had discovered McCarthy’s remains wrapped in plastic in a suitcase at the bottom of a wardrobe in the apartment after being given the location by Caffrey.

Caffrey had also admitted disposing of the .32 calibre automatic pistol used in the shooting – a blank gun which had been modified to fire live rounds – in the River Tolka, the judge noted.

“He went to considerable trouble to dispose of the deceased,” the judge said. He said that he considered Caffrey’s actions in “trussing up and preparing to dispose of a body” and using the McCarthy’s mobile phone to create the impression he was still alive were “part of a cover-up”.

Justice McDermott said he was satisfied there was not sufficient mitigation to reduce the severity of McCarthy’s offending below the range of high culpability, which would attract a headline sentence in the range of 10 to 15 years.

He concluded a headline sentence of 12 years was appropriate, before imposing a final sentence of nine years with one suspended.

Justice McDermott said Caffrey was “involved with drug dealers” from whom he bought drugs, accruing debts and ending up storing drugs at his home for them.

“His drug abuse led to that debt and his involvement in that subculture,” the judge said. “It’s not a case of the accidental discharge of a firearm in a domestic setting, or a hunting accident,” he added.

He found there that Caffrey’s offers to plead guilty to manslaughter before the trial commenced and the remorse he had expressed were to be weighted against his actions after the killing, which he said “did not suggest remorse”.

A death threat against Caffrey related to the killing was still live, the judge noted further, and he was on a 23-hour lock-up regime for his own protection.

“Unhappily, drug and gangland crime has produced a situation where offenders are separately housed for their own protection,” he said.

However, he said this was “largely a matter in my view of prison administration” and that he was not satisfied it was a basis for reducing the sentence”.

Probation conditions

Mr Caffrey entered into bonds to keep the peace and abide by various probation conditions upon his release at the end of the active portion of his sentence before the court rose.

The trial heard that Caffrey was a cocaine and cannabis user who had amassed drug debts that were taken on by McCarthy. In part payment for his debt, Caffrey allowed McCarthy to use his apartment in Drumcondra to store drugs.

However, McCarthy had his own drug debts and had been the subject of threats and at least one assault in the period leading up to August 2022.

With McCarthy dead in his apartment, Caffrey used money he took from the dead man's pocket to buy cocaine and later went to Dunnes Stores, where he bought a suitcase.

He returned home and attempted to put McCarthy into the suitcase but the body did not fit. Caffrey then placed the body, partially inside the suitcase, into a wardrobe.

Over the following four days, Caffrey went about various jobs, went to work, chatted with a work colleague about football and women and had "normal chats" with his ex-girlfriend. None of the people he spoke to in those four days, including neighbours and friends, noticed anything odd about him, the trial heard.

Caffrey also sent texts to the dead man's phone in what was described as a "ruse" to give the impression that he did not know McCarthy was dead. He disposed of the firearm and McCarthy's phone and deleted from his own phone a number of messages between himself and the deceased in the days leading up to the shooting.

After a few days, members of McCarthy's family became suspicious of Caffrey and called to his family home. Four days after the killing, Caffrey went to Ashbourne Garda Station and told gardai where they would find the body.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott had told the jury that they must consider whether Caffrey acted in self-defence and whether he used reasonable force in doing so.