A Dublin businessman, who called in the INLA to protect him from a Dublin drug dealer who was trying to extort money from him has been jailed at the Special Criminal Court today. John Creed, from Kiltilawn Green in Tallaght, who is 30 and part-owner of Ballymount Windows, was sent to prison for five years for his role in a melee in which INLA man Patrick Campbell lost his life.
Six criminal gang members called at Creed's business on October 6 1999, armed with machetes, knuckle dusters and a sword. They were seeking £600 compensation after Creed's brother set fire to a curtain in the Dublin criminal's van. However, the extortionists were met at Creed's business at the Ballymount Industrial Estate by an armed and balaclaved INLA gang which emerged on Creed's signal.
They stripped, beat and interrogated the gang, pouring cold water and hot tea on them, holding a drill and guns on them and threatening to shoot them. Creed provided the van into which the INLA bundled the naked men, but when a second criminal gang arrived to rescue the first, the subsequent melee resulted in the death of INLA man Patrick Campbell.
Creed was sentenced to five years imprisonment at the Special Criminal Court today after he pleaded guilty to four kidnapping charges. The final two years of the sentence were suspended.
