Dublin man pleads guilty to possession of semi automatic rifle

Eoin Reynolds

A Dublin man has pleaded guilty to possession of a semi-automatic rifle at a house in Finglas where video footage from a phone seized by gardaí showed the weapon being fired.

Glen Ward (32) appeared briefly on Friday morning at the three-judge, non-jury Special Criminal Court.

He entered a guilty plea to the charge that on January 1st 2022 at an address in Finglas he was in possession of or had control of a .223 calibre Remington AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable inference that he did not have it for a lawful purpose.

Ward's brother, Eric O'Driscoll (23) previously pleaded guilty to possession of the same gun.

During a sentencing hearing for O'Driscoll last year, Det Inspector Damien Kelly told the court that during a search of a home in Finglas in February 2022, gardaí recovered the semi-automatic rifle along with a military grade sub-machine gun and ammunition.

The guns were found to be in good condition and were successfully fired by a garda ballistics examiner, the detective said.

In June that year, gardai conducted an unrelated search of a taxi on the Tolka Valley Road and found a bank card in Eric O'Driscoll's name and a phone that they were later able to connect to the defendant.

Det Insp Kelly said analysts found a video clip on the phone in which O'Driscoll could be seen taking the AR-15 rifle from another man and firing it from the rear of a home in Finglas.

In another clip, the firearms that had been seized in February 2022 were filmed having been laid out on a table at the same address in Finglas.

Ms Justice Melanie Greally adjourned sentencing until a date in April this year.