The judges of the Special Criminal Court have praised Kevin Lunney for the way in which he delivered evidence during the 12 week trail of three men who abducted and tortured him in September 2019.
Three men, were today jailed for between fifteen and thirty years for the assault and false imprisonment of Mr Lunney outside Ballinagh in Co Cavan.
In September 2019, Mr Lunney was taken from near his Fermanagh home, brought to a yard at Drumbrade, Ballinagh, Co Cavan where he was placed in a horsebox, stripped, punched, beaten with a stick, attacked and branded on the chest with a knife, doused in bleach and then dumped on the side of a country road.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it was a deliberate, callous and vicious attack, and that there was no mismatch between the action and consequence.
The man known by court order as YZ, was described as having a leading role in both the attack and prior surveillance. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
40 year old Alan O'Brien from East Wall in Dublin 3 was said to have been involved in a dry run of the attack, the driver of a car used in
the initial abduction and being present for the assault.
He was jailed for 25 years.
The Court was told both were at this time not realistic candidates for rehabilitation.
27 year old Darren Redmond from East Wall was sentenced to 18 years in prison with the final three suspended on account of his age and lack of previous convictions.
Mobile phone data linked him to Ballinagh on the day of the attack.
Mr Lunney told the court last month in his victim impact statement, that he will carry the mental and physical trauma of the attack until his final days.
