Jim Mansfield Jnr found guilty of perverting course of justice

Eoin Reynolds

Property magnate James (Jim) Mansfield Jnr has been taken into custody after he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by ordering the destruction of CCTV footage showing him with his former employee, Martin Byrne on the morning that Mr Byrne was kidnapped by "dangerous" criminals, Dessie O'Hare and Declan 'Whacker' Duffy.

The 54-year-old was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court of a separate charge of conspiracy to falsely imprison Mr Byrne, who had previously provided security for the family business.

The court found that although Mansfield had knowingly involved notorious criminals O'Hare and Duffy in his attempts to recover assets lost in the 2008 economic crash, there was not sufficient evidence to show Mansfield knew the two men planned to kidnap Mr Byrne.

Delivering the verdict of the three-judge, non-jury court on Monday, Mr Justice Alex Owens said the court cannot exclude the possibility that Mansfield was misled by O'Hare as to the purpose of the meeting with Mr Byrne.

He added that the court "has no way of knowing how much knowledge he had of the forces he would unleash by involving" O'Hare and Duffy, whom he described as "very dangerous players".

Kidnap

The judge said CCTV footage from Finnstown House Hotel on June 9th, 2015 showed Mansfield with Mr Byrne before the two men travelled together to Keating Park where Mr Byrne was kidnapped by Duffy and O'Hare.

Mr Justice Owens said Mansfield told Patrick Byrne, Martin's brother, to destroy the footage because he knew Mr Byrne had been kidnapped by people with whom Mansfield was directly involved.

The footage, Mr Justice Owens said, showed Mansfield "had a role in putting Martin Byrne in harm's way".

Mansfield Jnr (54), of Tasaggart House, Garters Lane, Saggart, Co Dublin pleaded not guilty to conspiring with one or more persons to falsely imprison Martin Byrne on a date unknown between January 1st, 2015 and June 30th, 2015. He was found not guilty on that count.

He also denied attempting to pervert the course of justice by directing Patrick Byrne to destroy recorded CCTV footage, with the alleged intention of perverting the course of public justice in relation to the false imprisonment of Martin Byrne (53) at Finnstown House Hotel, Newcastle Road, Lucan, Co Dublin between June 9th, 2015 and June 12th, 2015, the count of which he was convicted.

More to follow.