Enniscrone man found not guilty of stealing tractor from Dromore West farm

THE jury in the trial of an Enniscrone man charged with the theft of a tractor found him not guilty by direction of the trial judge at Sligo Circuit Court last week.

Judge Kenneth Connolly said based on the prosecution’s evidence, the jury could not properly convict.

The accused man – James O’Dowd (28), of 8 The Woodlands Estate, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, had pleaded not-guilty to one count of theft of a Deutz-Fahr tractor – the property of Judy Kilgannon at Patch, Dromore West, on January 3, 2021. The judge made an order for Mr O’Dowd to return the vehicle to Ms Kilgannon, the sister and administrator of the deceased owner’s estate. He was discharged from all bail and the case was withdrawn with no admission or concession on the accused’s part.

Judge Connolly presided over a jury of eight women and five men who were charged with deciding the case. Defending counsel was Mr Pat O’Sullivan BL instructed by Mr Morgan Coleman solicitor. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Leo Mulrooney BL with state solicitor, Ms Elisa McHugh, were leading the prosecution.

Over the two-day trial, the jury heard evidence from three witnesses for the prosecution.

The first witness was investigating officer, Garda Ronan O’Donnell of Enniscrone Garda Station. On January 8, 2021, he was contacted by Ms Kilgannon to say her late brother Séamus Kilgannon’s tractor was missing and he made arrangements to call to her house.

Mr Dermot Kilgannon who was renting a shed on the land had told her the tractor was in the shed the morning of January 2 but was gone by that evening.

The garda then called to Mr O’Dowd to make inquiries and caution him. He said the vehicle was his and he was left it by Mr Kilgannon before his death. The tractor was parked in a parking bay like other vehicles in the estate, not concealed and “in plain sight for anyone to see” according to the garda. He invited Mr O’Dowd to the garda station to make a voluntary cautionary statement and he followed him back to the station 20 to 25 minutes later. Garda O’Donnell spoke to Dermot Kilgannon who was renting a shed on Séamus Kilgannon’s farm for 16 years and after he died continued to rent the shed.

A statement the defendant, Mr O’Dowd, gave to the gardaí was furnished as an exhibit to the court. In the statement, he said he was visiting Mr Kilgannon the August before he died when he went in the back and returned with a signed logbook for the tractor saying he wanted him to have it. He didn’t see him sign it. He posted it to Shannon (Department of Transport) the following day and insured and taxed the vehicle in the meantime. On the evening in question, he said he took the bus from Enniscrone to Dromore West and walked the six miles to the farm. The gates were left open; he didn’t know why they were open – if they weren’t, he wouldn’t have taken the tractor. He took a battery from the shed and put it in the tractor to drive it away. He didn’t tell Ms Kilgannon and closed the gates after him.

The garda looked for Mr O’Dowd to make a second statement because when the documentation requested from Shannon came back, the office said they hadn’t received the transfer of ownership document until November 17. The accused had said in his first statement he had sent it to them in August.

In his second statement also furnished as an exhibit to court, Mr O’Dowd said he didn’t post the transfer of ownership document to Shannon until after Mr Kilgannon’s death. He said he was prepared to sign back the vehicle to Ms Kilgannon, he didn’t want to fall out with her and wanted to put it behind them.

Ms Kilgannon, witness for the prosecution, told the court she was an administrator for her late brother’s estate. He died without making a will on October 14, 2020, having been diagnosed with cancer in 2012. She couldn’t get to visit him in hospital because of Covid and lockdown. When he died, their only sister in New York was still alive but she died five weeks later, and Ms Kilgannon had to do everything concerning the farm.

On January 3, 2021, Ms Kilgannon got a call from Dermot Kilgannon who rented the shed and was keeping an eye on the place to inform her the tractor had gone missing. She had given nobody permission to take it, and nobody had asked.

She told the court that Mr O’Dowd’s father and she are second cousins and didn’t realise the accused had a relationship with her late brother – “his father [would have] more so, usually to borrow something,” she said. She clarified that she didn’t inherit the tractor and it was never registered in her name.

Mr Dermot Kilgannon, the third prosecution witness, told the court the late Séamus Kilgannon was his father’s first cousin and the man he was leasing the shed from. He last saw the tractor around 6.40pm on the evening of January 2.

He closed the gates and bolted them across when he left. There was no battery in the tractor as he removed it because another vehicle had been stolen locally. There was no replacement battery in the shed that he had ever seen and he was familiar with the shed, feeding the dogs there twice a day. He returned after 11am on the Sunday and could see tractor tracks at the first gate. When he got to the other gate, he noticed the lock and chain were in a different position to how he had left it. There were fresh tool marks on the bolt that holds the gate-holder together. He said he rang Judy to let her know the vehicle was gone because she was the next-of-kin. He said he knew Séamus Kilgannon all his life. He was in hospital for two weeks before his death and he was shocked when he died as he wasn’t expecting it. He saw Mr O’Dowd once with his father at the farm after Séamus’ funeral when they talked at the sheds. He also saw him at the funeral when he carried the coffin.