Drug dealer who told woman he would have 'junkies' rape her son is jailed

Stephen Bourke

A drug dealer who told a mother that he would get "junkies" to rape her son if she failed to repay his €157,000 debt during a campaign of intimidation has been jailed for ten years.

The Special Criminal Court sentenced Mark "Fishy" Salmon (33), of Kilbarron Avenue, Kilmore, west Dublin, on Monday for making threats to kill people or damage their property, as well as the possession of €35,000 worth of cocaine and the proceeds of crime.

He had pleaded guilty to the charges in February.

"The accused preyed on the mother of a person who’d amassed a drug debt and made vicious and ongoing threats to her son[s]," presiding Judge Patrick McGrath said in passing the court's sentence.

The victim's other son, who had no involvement in the drugs trade, was also named in threatening communications from Salmon, Judge McGrath noted.

“No doubt the recipient was terrified and deeply concerned for the safety of her two sons,” the judge added.

The woman had left her home for a time out of concern for her safety and that of her family, while her elder son had left the country.

Salmon was jailed for ten years on Monday by the court.

“[The threats] were made to strike terror in the recipients and to exert maximum pressure, exploiting her love for her son and her fear of what might happen to him if she did not comply,” Judge McGrath said.

Salmon’s criminal culpability was heightened by the fact that he ranked “above those at the lowest end of the supply chain” in drug dealing; was “prepared to use a considerable level of intimidation and violence” and had “profited from his criminal activities”, the judge said.

However, the court noted an early guilty plea, the absence of “any relevant previous offending” and “ongoing efforts at rehabilitation” in prison, where Salmon had gained enhanced prisoner status.

The headline sentences would have extended to 16 years for the offending, but were reduced to four years for the drug offence, four years for the threats and two years for the possession of the proceeds of crime.

At a previous sentencing hearing, Detective Sergeant Domhnall O'Connell told Fiona Murphy, for the DPP, that Salmon used the threat of violence as part of an effort to intimidate people he accused of owing him money.

Judge McGrath ordered that the victims not be identified after hearing that they remain in fear for their safety.