Hunter to be sentenced for shooting man meditating in his garden

Declan Brennan

A licensed huntsman convicted of assaulting a man meditating in his back garden by shooting him in the leg will be sentenced next July.

Wicklow man Maurice Mahon (81) was convicted last March of reckless discharge of a firearm at Kilmashogue Lane in Rathfarnham on August 28th 2022.

He was also convicted of assaulting Innokenti Belaga, causing him harm on the same occasion.

Mahon, a licensed gun holder and karate grandmaster, was stalking deer in a field adjacent to the garden at the back of Belaga's rented home in Rathfarnham at around 9pm when he discharged the shot that went through the victim's right femur, shattering it.

At the time, the victim was meditating while standing at the bottom of his garden with his own dog close by.

During the sentence hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, prosecuting counsel Brian Storan told Judge Elma Sheahan that the State's case was not that Mahon intended to cause harm but that he was reckless in his actions.

The victim spent a month in hospital and long periods as an in-patient in a rehabilitation hospital. He required the use of a wheelchair for periods and now needs walking sticks to walk around.

In his victim impact statement read out by Storan, the father of one told the court that before the assault, he was an accomplished athlete, competing in underwater hockey, snorkelling, bouldering and climbing.

He said he would participate in 20 hours of intense-to-moderate exercise weekly, including mountain running with his 25kg border collie, whom he would sometimes carry down from hikes on his shoulders.

He said he did advanced yoga and circuit training in UCD, regularly did 1,500 “tuck jumps” on a trampoline and enjoyed dancing and acting as well as working in heavy ceramics.

“Overnight, I became someone who was playing bingo with sick elderly people. Life as I knew is essentially over for me,” he said.

He said he now can't run or climb and falls often. He said he feels vulnerable to accidents or attacks and can't sleep on his right side.

He said that because of the level of care required for the year after the shooting, he lost his rented home and is now living homeless, which is made harder by his disability.

In his statement, he said the biggest impact of the attack was on his young daughter. He said he used to carry her on his shoulders, jump with her on the trampoline and take her into the forest.

He said because of the shooting, he disappeared from her life overnight.

“My heart bleeds for her. She had a healthy, happy, devoted father - all she has now is a broken cripple who can't even explain to her what happened and why,” he said.

He said that he was shot while meditating in the back of his garden, a place he felt safest. “I don't feel safe anywhere anymore,” he said.

The victim thought at the time that he had been shot on purpose and thought he would be shot again and killed. As a result, he tried to move from where he lay injured but could only crawl a few metres away.

Having heard the shouts of pain, Mahon found the victim and tried to assist, including getting emergency services to the scene.

Mahon of Bray Head Lodge, Strand Rd, Bray, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty to both counts. After a trial which ran from late February into March, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts.

He has no previous convictions.

Kieran Kelly, defending, said his client and another stalker had been hired by the landowner to shoot deer that were attacking his crops.

He said Mahon had a license to shoot deer, and for four decades he has been hired by local councils for management of the species “and vermin”.

He said Mahon was concealed in a hut on the land and was equipped with a high-powered rifle with a sight.

Garda Patrick Browne told Storan that Mahon would have had to step out of the hut in order to shoot in the direction the bullet travelled.

Mahon told gardaí at the scene that he had discharged a shot at what he thought was a fox in the vicinity of sheep. He later stated that he had thought it was a dog “worrying” the animals.

Kelly said his client has himself been traumatised by these events, wishes the victim the very best and hopes he will recover. He said Mahon represented Ireland in boxing in 1961 and got into martial arts in 1963.

He attained grandmaster level in Kenpo Karate and has trained 1,000's of students in the sport, counsel said. Kelly said his client has been a licensed gun-holder since 1985 and that shooting, hunting and outdoor living were his passions.

The court heard that civil proceedings in the matter are at an early stage.

Judge Sheahan ordered a Probation Service assessment and adjourned finalisation of sentence to July 27th. She remanded Mahon on continuing bail.

In his victim impact statement, Belaga told the court that for physical and psychological reasons, he hasn't worked since the shooting, and he lost his rented home.

He said the bullet shattered 15cm of his femur, with the fragments exploding into the surrounding soft tissue. He said this torn muscle fibre will never recover and that he expects to need a hip replacement eventually.

He said he spent a year in a wheelchair.

He said the psychological consequences include feeling powerless and paralysed, constant nightmares and a feeling that “the universe is against me”.