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A grieving father who tried to avenge his son’s gang-related murder in Dublin last year was sentenced in Special Criminal Court to six years in prison.
Stephen Little’s son was shot and killed in May 2019 as part of an ongoing drug dispute at Coolock in Dublin that has so far claimed five lives.
The 47-year-old man from Kilbarron Avenue in Dublin, who was caught with a loaded gun, told Gardaí that the murder cost his son and his marriage.
A second gunman, Edward McDonnell, 56, of Waterside Apartments in New Ross, who was arrested in the car with him, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Judge Tony Hunt said the men were involved in serious and organized crime and that Gardaí’s “timely intervention” had prevented serious harm or death.
Both men were under surveillance last year by the Garda Office of Drugs and Organized Crime.
Sean, Little’s 22-year-old son, had been shot and killed four months earlier.
On September 14, 2019, the car Little and McDonnell were in was stopped and they were surprised with a semiautomatic pistol, two ski masks, two baseball caps, cell phones, gloves, a gas can, and a long-handled lighter. .
When they took him to Clontarf Garda station. Stephen Little asked Gardaí, “Why didn’t you let him go another hour? If you had given me another hour, I would have killed the son of a bitch who killed him.”
He also said, “I lost my marriage and my son.”
McDonnell initially pleaded not guilty, but on the fifth day of his trial, he admitted his role.
He has 47 prior convictions, including for attempted robbery, sexual assault, and injurious battery.
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