Sunday, November 20, 2005
Padraig Nally's defence
As alot of you know, here on United Irelander I have been covering the story of Padraig Nally, the 61-year-old Mayo farmer, who was recently jailed for 6 years for killing a Traveller who had broken into his home.I've found the RTE report from July 2005 which details Padraig Nally's defence. Nally stated that he never intended to kill Mr Ward and was sorry for what happened. According to RTE:
"He told the fourth day of his trial that he had been living in fear for the five months before the fatal shooting, and that he often sat in his shed with a loaded shotgun for up to five hours at a time. The gun belonged to his father and had been in the house for 65 years.
"He said he was afraid of being broken into and killed in his bed. He often only slept a few hours at night and the pressure was almost unbearable.
"On the day Mr Ward came into his farmhouse Mr Nally got the gun from the shed and as he confronted him at the back door, it went off accidentally. He said he did not aim at Mr Ward and his hand was shivering as the trigger went off.
"The defendant said Mr Ward took the gun off him and tried to hit him with it but he got it back. And in an ensuing scuffle he hit Mr Ward at least ten blows with a stick.
"He then reloaded the gun and followed Mr Ward down the road and fired a second shot at him. Mr Nally said he meant to frighten the Traveller and the shot accidentally hit him.
"The accused said he believed his mind was gone at the time and he was sorry for doing it. He said he never intended to shoot anyone in his life and it just happened on the spur of the moment.
"Mr Nally said he was in such a state that he reloaded the gun and for a time he thought of taking his own life."
As I have stated already, if we lived in a society which gave consideration to the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators of crime, Padraig Nally would not be in jail right now.
Mr Nally is not a criminal and doesn't deserve to be locked up with criminals.
Free Padraig Nally now!
# posted by United Irelander @ 5:35 AM 
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