BREAKING: Father of murdered Offaly boy jailed for drugs offence

THE father of the boy murdered in an Edenderry firebomb attack has been jailed for seven years for a drugs offence.

Aaron Holt (27), Castleview Park, Edenderry, was sentenced at Mullingar Circuit Court having previously pleaded guilty at Tullamore Circuit Court to having more than €13,000 worth of drugs for sale or supply to others at Castleview Park on May 8, 2024.

Judge Keenan Johnson imposed a sentence of eight years on Mr Holt but suspended the final year of it for five years on condition the man enter a peace bond.

A co-accused, Shane O'Neill (26), with an address at Killane Court, Edenderry, but now living in Tullamore was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Mr O'Neill's total sentence was two and a half years but Judge Johnson suspended the final year on condition he enter a peace bond.

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Detective Garda Joseph Bradley told the court a tick list found in the bedroom of Mr Holt's house referred to sums totalling €64,315 and contained the names of various persons.

A tick list in Mr O'Neill's house referred to a total due of €99,455 and it was accepted that list was owned by Mr Holt.

Judge Johnson said the mandatory minimum sentence for the offences before the court is 10 years but a deviation can be made from that if an injustice might be created.

He said there would be no deviation from the maximum in the case of Mr Holt but he reduced the sentence to eight years because of mitigating factors, including the man's plea of guilty.

The judge said all the evidence, including the tick lists amounting to €160,000 being due, pointed to Mr Holt being the main driver of the distribution of drugs in the Edenderry area.

He said that Mr O'Neill was the least culpable of the two men but because he had moved drugs he had enabled Mr Holt to operate.

Mr Holt is currently serving a sentence for another offence and Judge Johnson noted he had been sanctioned in prison and had been found in possession of a phone.

The man had 59 previous convictions and last year, while on bail for the offence before the court, had been convicted of possessing drugs valued at €3,000 and received a nine-month sentence.

He was also subject to a peace bond and a separate suspended sentence at the time and a probation report indicated he had little regard for court orders.

The death of his son and aunt in an arson attack had a profound impact on him, the judge added, and he described it as a double tragedy which also resulted in his mother receiving life changing injuries.

That arson attack also illustrated the profound negative impact drugs had on society, said the judge.

He said Mr O'Neill was a man who had become highly addicted to cocaine and became involved in this offending to feed his drug habit.

While on bail he had gone to Cuan Mhuire for drug addiction treatment, got married last year and had done as much as he could to assist the garda investigation.

Mr Holt is due before Tullamore District Court on February 4 next when a matter dating from 2022 will be re-entered by the prosecution.

A sentencing hearing for the two men earlier this month was told that CCTV footage at Castleview Park, admissions by Mr O'Neill after his arrest, and the content of messages on TikTok led to both men pleading guilty last year to having €32,910 worth of heroin for sale or supply.

The sentencing hearing was told by Detective Garda Trevor Mullins that gardai viewed CCTV footage of Mr O'Neill retrieving a package from behind a hedge at a lane at Castleview Park on the morning of May 8 and then entering the home of Mr Holt in Castleview Park.

Mr O'Neill was then captured on camera leaving that house and concealing the package in the lane again.

Detective Garda Mullins said gardai retrieved the package and at 4.05am the following morning Mr Holt sent Mr O'Neill a message on TikTok asking him to bring “gear” to him and he would give him “5p”.

Mr O'Neill replied “Swear” and after further messages from Mr Holt to Mr O'Neill, Mr Holt messaged: “On my kids' life, I need it, and the scales”.

CCTV footage of the lane captured both men searching the lane from 4.40am for several hours and audio recorded Mr Holt saying “Where is the brown?” and “There's going to be war boys”.

Shane Geraghty, BL, prosecuting, told the court that after failing to find the package Mr Holt reached out to third parties for CCTV covering the area to find the drugs.

The court was also told that gardai got warrants to search Mr Holt's property where they found a “tick list” under his bed and “baggies” for packaging drugs in a press, along with mobile phones.

Mr O'Neill was lying on a couch when gardai arrived at his residence and a tick list was also recovered there, but Mr O'Neill said it had been given to him by Mr Holt.

Mr O'Neill gave the gardai the access code for his phone and they viewed the TikTok messages between the two men on it, including one where Mr Holt messaged the other man saying “Don't forget a bit of gear”.

Mr Holt was subsequently interviewed four times but gardai got nothing of evidential value from him.

Mr O'Neill was described as “forthright” when gardai questioned him and said he had started a job in construction the previous night, May 8, and while he was a user of drugs, having been “on coke for ages”, he had never sold drugs.

The court was told by Seoirse O Dunlaing, SC, for Mr Holt, that the man had left school at 14 and then had some form of employment with the Acorn Project in Edenderry until he was 18 or 19.

It was then he got involved in illicit drugs and had been in and out of the judicial system.

A father of three, his youngest had died at the age of four in what Mr O Dunlaing said was a “serious criminal incident” and his mother was still in hospital as a result of that incident.

He had missed his own son's funeral because he was not permitted to leave prison for hit and the events had hit him “like a train coming down the tracks”.

In a letter to the court, he apologised for the mistakes he had made over the years and said the past month had been “the most painful period” of his life.

Twelve of Mr Holt's previous convictions were under the Misuse of Drugs Act, including three for having drugs for sale or supply.

David Nugent, BL, for Mr O'Neill, a man with no previous convictions, said he was aged 24 at the time of the offence.

He had taken the matter very seriously and provided the code to his phone which helped the gardai to thread together the evidence.

It was his first time ever to be in contact with the gardai and he understood it was a very serious matter.

He had learned in therapy since that people were making use of him and he felt useful himself as a result.

He had completed a 20-week addiction treatment programme at Cuan Mhuire and was now going to NA meetings regularly and was clean from drugs.

He had started using cannabis and tablets when he was in his 20s but had engaged fully with services and was now working as a digger driver and hoped to go on to drive teleporters.

In a letter to the court Mr O'Neill said he had learned how there were consequences for what he was doing and he knew he had made poor choices. He also knew he did not need drink or drugs to be happy and had moved out of Edenderry.

Mr Nugent told Judge Johnson that Mr O'Neill should be very proud of where he had got to, having rebuilt his life from the ground up.

Judge Johnson said the case “disturbingly illustrates the scourge of illicit drugs and their adverse impact on society”.

Aaron Holt's son Tadgh Farrell and the boy's grand-aunt Mary Holt were both killed when the house at Castleview Park in Edenderry where they were on the evening of December 6 last was firebombed.

Aaron Holt's son Tadgh Farrell and the boy's grand-aunt Mary Holt were both killed when the house at Castleview Park in Edenderry where they were on the evening of December 6 last was firebombed.

Tadgh's grandmother Pauline Holt was also in the house and was hospitalised afterwards.