Jail for man arrested during confrontation with armed gardai

A Dublin man has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court for possessing a 9mm Beretta handgun and silencer. Andrew O'Keeffe, aged 29, from Drumcliff Road, Cabra West, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty in June to the offence at Kylemore Way in Inchicore on 6 September 2017. The incident occurred during a confrontation with armed gardai in which an officer discharged seven rounds after a jeep drove towards officers restraining O'Keeffe on the ground. Mr Justice Tony Hunt noted a headline sentence of twelve years but reduced it to nine years with one year suspended, taking into account O'Keeffe's early guilty plea and longstanding drug addiction. The judge remarked on O'Keeffe's extensive criminal history spanning seventy-one previous convictions. The sentence was backdated to 6 September 2017 when O'Keeffe entered custody. The court heard O'Keeffe was not the driver of the vehicle from which the weapon was discarded.