‘This might go some way to clearing our dead brother’s good name’
Farmer family hopeful over appeal of killer’s sentence
THE family of a farmer impaled on the prongs of a teleporter have welcomed the DPP’s decision to appeal against his killer’s sentence. John Anthony O’Mahony’s heart and liver were ripped out of his body when the car he was in was rammed by farmer Michael Ferris driving a twopronged teleporter.
As well as multiple lacerations and fractures all over his bruised and bloodied body, Mr O’Mahony suffered at least five penetrating wounds.
Ferris, 63, with whom he was embroiled in a bitter 30-year row about the use of a crow banger, was found guilty in October of his neighbour’s manslaughter in Ballyduff, Co. Kerry, on April 4 last year.
On December 3 Ferris was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court with the final year suspended.
At the time, Mr O’Mahony’s family said their pain had been ‘exacerbated by the lenient sentence’.
But news that the Director of Public Prosecutions is appealing the sentence was welcomed last night by the family as a ‘small comfort’.
It will take between six months and a year before the appeal hearing – at which Mr Ferris is expected to be present – takes place.
Séamus O’Mahony, John Anthony’s brother, heard the news from gardaí on Thursday.
He told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘We were very upset at the whole sentence and the court case but at least the fact that the DPP is appealing the sentence is at least a slight help. But that said, it is still not the justice we deserve. It might go some way to clear his good name and good character.’
Asked how he feels about the length of time it will take to reach the appeal hearing stage, he said: ‘I am aware that it could take up to a year. But we will just have to hang in there.
‘This is a small help to us to know that it is going to happen.
‘As far as myself and anybody I have spoken to about this case, it was a total and utter miscarriage of justice.
‘The whole issue of provocation came up but that is something that is only usually applied to domestic abuse cases.’
Frank Buttimer, who represents Mr Ferris, said last night: ‘We received notification about this on Thursday. I would say Michael does not even know about it as he is in custody and I wouldn’t have any direct access to him.
‘We will be communicating that fact to him as his solicitors.
‘I will say he will just deal with it appropriately.
‘The DPP has got to make an argument to the Court of Appeal to justify their proposal, which I understand is that the sentence was “unduly lenient”.
‘Michael Ferris will then avail of the opportunity to respond to their argument in the court context and the Court of Appeal will then decide.’
Mr Buttimer added: ‘Michael will be brought from prison to the court to be present for the appeal hearing.
‘But this won’t be for a number of months. The listing process in the Court of Appeal is such that it may take some number of months for the matter to be listed.
‘Submissions have to be filed in advance by the DPP and then we have to file our replies.
‘It’s a process and I’d say it would be unusual if it were to be heard within six months. The average span would be for within 12 months.’
As well as multiple lacerations and fractures all over his bruised and bloodied body, Mr O’Mahony suffered at least five penetrating wounds, ripping out some of his internal organs.
The Central Criminal Court sitting in Tralee, Co. Kerry, heard his heart was found beside him in his car and that his liver was discovered in the footwell.
Two prongs went right through Mr O’Mahony as he sat in the driver’s seat. He had gaping holes in the left side of his skull and to his chest and stomach.
Assistant State Pathologist Margaret Bolster revealed the nature of the 73-year-old’s extensive injuries and said he would have died immediately.
The first gardaí to find the dead man described the scene as ‘horrific’.
The first thing officers saw as they turned into a remote and narrow country road in their patrol car was a navy blue car parked against a ditch.
When they approached the 131reg Peugeot 508 they noticed a long stream of debris leading to the car, and puncture marks in the bonnet, and in the roof. The windscreen had two gaping holes on either side of it.
They then looked inside the Peugeot 508 and found Mr O’Mahony sitting with his seat belt on in the driver’s seat. He had clearly suffered ‘catastrophic injuries’ to his head and midriff.
The court heard that before 8am on the day, Mr Ferris was driving a teleporter, or loader, ‘with large prongs’ on the narrow country road where the incident happened. He ‘intentionally rammed’ the Peugeot, resulting in Mr O’Mahony’s death.
The trial heard he later told gardaí his 73-year-old neighbour ‘had to be stopped’.
Ferris, from Rattoo, Ballyduff, Co. Kerry, was convicted of manslaughter. A jury cleared him of murder.
The incident stemmed from of a bitter dispute over a crow banger which Mr O’Mahony had installed to scare birds from his crops.
Ferris told gardaí it was so loud it ‘would wake the dead’ and had been used on and off for 30 years.
‘It is still not the justice we deserve’
‘This could take 12 months’