DPP appeals sentence in Kerry farmer teleporter-killing case
By Anne Lucey
The sentence handed down to Kerry dairy farmer Michael Ferris for the manslaughter of his neighbouring tillage farmer over a crow banger is to be appealed on the grounds of undue leniency.
The family of the late Anthony O’ Mahony have been highly critical of the five-year jail term imposed by Ms Justice Carmel Stewart earlier this month.
The jail term is backdated to April 2017 when Ferris was taken into custody. The family has said that means in effect he could be out of jail in just over two years. They made a lengthy submission to the Director of Public Prosecutions outlining their deep dissatisfaction.
Michael Ferris (main picture below. Anthony O’ Mahony is pictured in the inset image) went on trial for murder in October, at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Tralee.
He denied murder but admitted killing the tillage farmer. He was found guilty of manslaughter by majority verdict, and not guilty of murder.
The trial heard how, on the morning of April 4 he blocked the road to the ancient tower of Rattoo with his teleporter. When Anthony O’Mahony arrived as usual from his home in nearby Ardoughter to turn on a crow banger to protect his spring wheat,
Michael Ferris used the teleporter to lift the tillage farmer’s car off the road and rammed it several times with the prongs of the machine. The body of the late Anthony O’Mahony had been pierced several times and gardaí who arrived described a horrific scene.
In handing down the five-year jail term, the judge said she would place the offence at the lower end of the upper range of manslaughter.
Ms Justice Stewart said among mitigating factors in sentencing was the fact Ferris admitted all along that he had unlawfully killed Mr O’Mahony and there had been prior correspondence to plead guilty to manslaughter which was not acceptable to the DPP.
“The appellant court had indicated over the years that this is equivalent to a guilty plea and the court must have regard to this,” she said.
Other mitigating factors included the fact Ferris admitted his involvement from the outset and he was otherwise a man of good character with no previous convictions.
No application was made by the prosecution for the destruction of the teleporter which is still being held by gardaí.
The DPP has now directed that the sentence handed down by Ms Justice Carmel Stewart be looked at by the Court of Appeal.
The Courts Service has confirmed the DPP has lodged an appeal against undue leniency and the matter will go before the three-judge court.
It is thought that the appeal will be heard in around a year's time.
