A 38-year-old man told gardaí he shot and killed a drug dealer in his apartment in Dublin after he had threatened to kill him over a €5,000 drug debt two-and-a-half years ago.
Dean Caffrey, from Beaucourt in Drumcondra, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of the manslaughter of Sean McCarthy on 2 August 2022.
The 28-year-old victim's sister said in the Central Criminal Court that the family had lived through a nightmare while searching for him for five days.
Caffrey told gardaí that he owed €300 for cocaine, a debt which kept doubling every week as he and his family were threatened for payment.
He said Sean McCarthy, a known drug dealer, told him he could work off the debt by holding drugs in his apartment at Beaucourt in Drumcondra, so he agreed to store cannabis, heroin and, at one stage, a gun.
However he said that on 2 August 2022, Mr McCarthy came to his apartment and, while holding a gun, threatened that he would kill him if he did not pay a €5,000 drug debt.
A struggle for the gun ensued and Mr McCarthy was shot in the head.
Caffrey then wrapped Mr McCarthy’s body in plastic and tied it with duct tape and bungy cord.
He took money from the dead man’s pocket to buy cocaine and later bought a suitcase in Dunnes Stores, which was too small.
He placed Mr McCarthy’s body partially inside the suitcase and into a wardrobe.
He also bought beer, gloves, bleach and wipes and the following day applied online for a storage unit.
He told gardaí that he wiped the gun and dropped it into the River Tolka in Griffith Park, where it was subsequently recovered.
Mr McCarthy’s family and friends began looking for him.
Caffrey said he was asked, but refused to get into a van to explain to Mr McCarthy’s father where his son was.
Four days later, Caffrey’s father and brother took him to the gardaí after he told them his life was in danger.
"They were going to kill me da," Caffrey’s father said his son told him.
"He was mumbling and crying, they wanted to ring you dad, to get €5,000 off you."
'Heart-wrenching and very disturbing'
Mr McCarthy’s sister said the family had lived through a "nightmare" during a five-day search for her brother while his body lay wrapped in plastic in a suitcase inside a wardrobe.
Nicole McCarthy said she was "baffled" and "concerned" at how Caffrey continued with his life "like everything was normal".
She said she and her family were devastated by the details that emerged during the trial, including that Caffrey had stolen money from her brother's pocket which he used to buy a suitcase "believing that would be my brother's coffin, his last resting place".
She described as "heart-wrenching and very disturbing" the details of how Caffrey wrapped his victim in plastic with a bag over his head and a cord around his neck.
Ms McCarthy said she will never understand why Caffrey did not ring an ambulance so the family might have had a chance to say goodbye and have one final moment with him.
"You have no idea of the life you have destroyed and the impact and ripple effect on so many people," she told him.
"You will never be forgiven," she added.
She asked for the court to deliver justice for her brother, "so he can rest in peace, two-and-a-half years later, as he truly deserves".
Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he will sentence Caffrey next week.
