GANGSTER ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson’s son has been jailed for eight years over a terrifying shooting at a car with four people inside.
Brad Dempsey waved at his family while being led away by prison officers as his mother Vicky Dempsey left the courtroom in tears this afternoon.
The case heard how she submitted a letter into the court in which she states she carries a “lot of guilt” over her son’s very difficult childhood.
Dempsey, 24, is the son of Vicky and her ex-partner Freddie Thompson, 44, who is serving a life sentence behind bars for the Kinahan cartel murder of David ‘Daithi’ Douglas on July 1, 2016.
Dempsey, of Stannaway Road in Drimnagh, previously pleaded guilty to the possession of the firearm in suspicious circumstances.
Detective Garda Richie Pender took to the stand as he was taken through the facts of the case by Diarmuid Collins BL.
The court heard that on the day of the shooting, Dempsey got a taxi to a house after his friend had been assaulted earlier.
The taxi man later gave a statement to gardai saying that Dempsey was in an agitated state during the journey and had told someone to get him a “lock” over the phone.
The court was shown CCTV footage in which a gunman – along with two others – emerged from a house before he fired a number of shots at a Ford Galaxy car.
Smoke could be seen rising from the gun as the car fled.
The driver of the car gave a statement to detectives to say he heard a “cracking sound” and initially thought they were being targeted by rocks before noticing bullets were being fired.
He said he was “freaking out” and panicked before he “got the hell out of there”.
The man was “crying” and “shocked” and told officers where he drove the car to when he abandoned it.
CCTV EVIDENCE
Other CCTV on the day showed three men running through a house and over a back wall.
Dempsey was identified after his movements were tracked and he removed the scarf from his face when he met a relative.
The top he was wearing also had marks consistent from hopping over a wall.
Gardai later recovered the clothes Dempsey was wearing at the time of the shooting, after they had been dumped in a bag by a woman.
Dempsey denied his involvement in the shooting when he was arrested in August 2023.
DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD
Padraig Dwyer SC, defending Dempsey, said his client has had a difficult childhood and was exposed to crime at a young age.
He told Judge Martin Nolan that Dempsey had a serious drug problem at the time of the offence.
Dempsey’s mother handed in a letter in which the court heard that she states she carries a lot of “guilt” over her son’s childhood.
He said Dempsey was thankful no one was hurt, and it was a spontaneous response from an earlier incident.
ACCUSED SORRY
Demspey accepted he did wrong and is sorry for his offence, he said.
Mr Dwyer explained his client had been in prison for a “significant period” of his life after he had developed a drug problem from the age 13 and was taking cocaine by the age of 15.
Dempsey, the court heard, wants to turn his life around, leave criminality and work as a personal trainer as well as having a family with his partner.
‘WAKE-UP CALL’
He is engaging with consultations where he has impressed during various appointments in prison.
Mr Dwyer said that this is a “wake-up call” for his client and he is now firmly focussed on leading a crime-free life.
Dempsey has previous convictions for the production of an article in the course of a dispute, violent disorder and drug offences.
Judge Nolan said that Dempsey had been apprehended through very good police work by the gardai.
‘MUST CHANGE HIMSELF’
He said in mitigation, Dempsey’s plea of guilty was valuable and his expression of his remorse.
But he told the accused that “he must change himself” as he stated to the court that he finds it hard to disagree with the Director of Public Prosecution’s opinion that this was on the higher scale of offending.
Judge Nolan jailed him for eight years for the “very serious” offence and backdated it to when Dempsey entered custody.
