Two men jailed for traveller feud resulting in stabbing on busy street

Alison O’Riordan

Two men have been jailed for eight years and four years respectively for engaging in a feud between two Traveller families that resulted in a man being stabbed multiple times on a busy street in Mullingar on a summer afternoon, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

The Central Criminal Court was previously told that the families involved have since engaged with the Traveller Mediation Service to reconcile their differences.

Passing the sentence, Mr Justice David Keane said the incident was entirely of the offenders' own making and had occurred against the background of a protracted feud between two families.

The judge said the assault on victim Anthony Dinnegan was particularly severe and vicious, where he was chased along a busy street and sustained multiple stab wounds.

Injuries

He described the injuries as severe and said they could have led to his death. He said Mr Dinnegan's survival was more a matter of luck than judgement on the part of one of the defendants Michael Nevin.

In a victim impact statement, Anthony Dinnegan said the attack had a profound attack on him "stripping away the person I once was", leaving him a "shell of a man".

He said the scars on his body were a constant reminder of what had occurred and the fact the attack occurred outside his home left him feeling vulnerable.

Christopher Nevin (31), Grange Crescent, Mullingar and Michael Nevin (41), Grange Heights, Mullingar had been charged with the attempted murder of Mr Dinnegan Jnr in Co Westmeath on August 2nd 2024.

In June, Michael Nevin entered a guilty plea to a charge of causing serious harm to Mr Dinnegan Jnr while Christopher Nevin pleaded guilty to violent disorder. The Director of Public Prosecutions accepted the pleas.

At last month's sentence hearing, Garda James Grogarty told prosecution senior counsel Fiona Murphy that Anthony Dinnegan Jnr was assaulted near his home on Austin Friars St in Mullingar on August 2nd 2024.

The assault arose, he said, out of an "ongoing Traveller feud" between factions within the Dinnegan and Nevin families.

Sentencing the two men on Friday, Mr Justice Keane said over the summer of 2024 there had been a litany of incidents between the two families.

He said it was important to note that the incident had occurred in the middle of Mullingar town on a busy Friday afternoon in August, where the victim sustained multiple stab injuries, one of which created substantial risk of death.

Referring to Michael Nevin, the judge said there was not sudden or partial loss of self-control but that the offence was one of deliberate and considered retaliation.

In the case of Christopher Nevin, the judge said he had deliberately attacked the victim with a pickaxe and the offence was premeditated.

The judge set the headline sentence for Michael Nevin at 13 years in prison. He said the appropriate headline sentence for Christopher Nevin was eight years.

In mitigation, the judge noted that the pleas offered by each offender were relatively early pleas.

The judge said Michael Nevin had three previous offences for violent disorder, the third of which was committed in 2019. In 2021, a sentence of five years was imposed for that offence but suspended for ten years.

Christopher Nevin, the judge said, was using cocaine and alcohol around the time of this offence.

The judge sentenced Michael Nevin to ten years in prison with the final two years suspended for a period of two years.

Christopher Nevin was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison with the final 18 months suspended for a period of 18 months.

Michael Nevin has 44 previous convictions, including three for violent disorder, one for assault, possession of knives, endangerment and public order offences. Christopher Nevin has four previous convictions for road traffic matters.

After the finalisation of Friday sentences, Ms Murphy told the judge that Michael Nevin's suspended sentence for violent disorder had been active at the time of this offence.

The judge remanded him to another date at Mullingar Circuit Court for the purpose of a possible reactivation of that suspended prison sentence.

Sentence hearing

At last month's sentence hearing, Det Gda Kevin Lennon told prosecutor Fiona Murphy that the background to the assault was a "litany of incidents" in the summer of 2024 involving the Dinnegan and Nevin families or people on their behalf threatening and intimidating one another.

Gardaí received eleven reports of threats to kill, criminal damage and endangerment in the month before the assault.

It was a busy afternoon in Mullingar when the assault happened, he said. Members of the public alerted gardaí but by the time they arrived on Austin Friars St, Mr Dinnegan had already been removed to hospital by his uncle.

Mr Dinnegan was treated at Midlands Regional Hospital for head and multiple stab wounds, including to his lower left chest and leg.

A CT scan revealed that his liver had been perforated, requiring immediate surgery and multiple blood transfusions. He was taken to intensive care after surgery and remained in a critical condition for 24 hours.

Doctors stated that the injury to his liver could have led to death.

In hospital, Mr Dinnegan named Michael Nevin as the person who injured him and Christopher 'Sausages' Nevin as also being involved in the assault.

Gardai gathered CCTV which showed both defendants driving as part of a convoy of three to four cars in Mullingar prior to the assault, Det Gda Lennon said.

The convoy engaged in a "verbal exchange" with members of the Dinnegan family at Mill House before Michael Nevin went to the apartment where Anthony Dinnegan lived with his wife and children on Austin Friars St.

Mr Dinnegan's wife, Mary Kate Dinnegan, told gardai that Michael Nevin banged on the apartment door and shouted at her: "I'm coming to kill ye, burn ye out. I'm coming to kill Anthony."

Ms Dinnegan said she later saw Michael Nevin running after Anthony Dinnegan carrying a weapon, but she did not see the assault.

Det Gda Lennon said CCTV showed Michael Nevin carrying a large knife in his left hand as he chased Mr Dinnegan down the road.

Following the assault, the cars in the convoy left the area. One was later found burned out while two others were rammed. One car, which belonged to Christopher Nevin, was not recovered.

The victim said the scars are a constant reminder of what happened, he struggles mentally and requires medication. He said he no longer feels safe in his own home and is constantly looking over his shoulder.

He said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has regular nightmares. "This has permanently changed my life. I will never be the person I was before August 2nd. I will carry the scars, both physical and emotional, for the rest of my life," he said.

In relation to Michael Nevin, Ms Murphy said the DPP places his offence at the higher end due to the "viciousness", the injuries suffered by the victim, the culpability of the defendant and the general circumstances. She said he should attract a headline sentence of ten to 15 years.

Det Gda Lennon agreed with defence counsel Padraig Dwyer SC, for Michael Nevin, that the members of the Dinnegan and Nevin families involved in the feud have entered a "peace agreement" having engaged with the Traveller Mediation Service.

Mr Dwyer asked the court to take the efforts at mediation into account in sentencing and to give credit for his client's early guilty plea.

Seamus Clarke SC, for Christopher Nevin, said his client has three children and another expected in January. He apologises, Mr Clarke said, and says he "got mixed up with the wrong crowd at the wrong time".

He asked the court to take a "big leap of faith" in him.