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Man who shoved hand up own behind before assaulting gardai is well-known gangland thug

Duncan was caught with cocaine, cannabis, and ecstasy in Swiftwood Apartments, Saggart, on November 26, 2007 and later jailed for eight years over the drugs haul

Alan Sherry

Today at 17:51

A MAN who is set to be sentenced for assaulting gardai and possessing €8,500 of cocaine in condoms is a gangland thug who has been linked to violent feuds, prison escapes and major drug seizures in the past.

John Paul Duncan (39) of Drumcairn Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin 24, shoved his hand up his behind and tried to shove it in a garda’s face before violently assaulting two gardai in the Mater Hospital after being arrested with €8,500 worth of cocaine in condoms on January 31.

He is due to be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to the assault and drugs offences.

The incident is far from Duncan’s only brush with the law and we can reveal he had his ankles and knees sledgehammered by his bosses after he was caught with a €2.8m drugs haul in 2007.

Duncan was caught with cocaine, cannabis, and ecstasy in Swiftwood Apartments, Saggart, on November 26, 2007 and later jailed for eight years over the drugs haul.

Before he was sentenced he was taken to the Dublin mountain by his gang bosses and had his ankles and knees hit with sledgehammer before being left there to find his own way to hospital.

He had links to a gang suspected of involvement in the murder of Paul ‘Frank’ Byrne who was murdered in 2009.

Byrne, last seen on July 15, 2009 at Kilmartin Green in Tallaght after getting into a car with two men outside his house.

His skeletal remains were found in a remote forest near Blessington, Co Wicklow, a year later and the case has been the focus of a murder investigation since.

Gardai arrested a man in connection with the murder earlier this year. He was released without charge while a file is prepared for the DPP.

It is understood that the same gang behind Byrne’s killing also murdered drug dealer Stephen O’Halloran, who died in a hail of bullets while sitting in a parked car outside his home in January 2009.

David Patchell of Rossfield Crescent, Tallaght, was convicted of the murder in April, 2011.

As well as his conviction for the 2007 drugs haul, Duncan has 138 previous convictions in Ireland and 11 in other jurisdiction for offences including drug offences, assault causing harm, theft, and escape from lawful custody.

Duncan walked out of Loughan House open prison on February 5, 2015, two days after he had been transferred there from Castlerea Prison.

He was later arrested by police in the UK and was extradited back to Ireland in 2017.

That incident was not his only escape from custody.

Duncan previously staged an escape from Tallaght courthouse as he was being led into a garda van in February 2010.

He appeared in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this week on drugs and assault charges and asked for his sentence to be stayed so he can take up a residential drug treatment placement.

Garda Clodagh Doyle told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that gardaí were called to Lott’s Café Bar on Liffey Street Lower on the day in question after a man was seen wrapping up white powder underneath a table.

Duncan was arrested and brought to Store Street Garda Station, where he produced six condoms from his trousers, filled with over 122 grams of cocaine.

The cocaine had a total street value of just over €8,500, the court heard.

A few hours later, Duncan complained of being unwell and said he had swallowed cocaine earlier.

Garda Doyle and two colleagues accompanied Duncan to the Mater Hospital at around 7pm, where he became distressed and threw himself, retching, onto the floor.

Duncan said he needed the toilet and was brought to a private room containing a commode.

Gardaí waiting outside heard him roaring and shouting and moving furniture around, and when they entered, Duncan took his hand, which had been inserted in his behind, and tried to put it in a garda’s face.

Gda Doyle told Olan Callanan BL, prosecuting, that Duncan then became extremely aggressive, leapt up from a chair and headbutted her colleague.

The three gardaí sought to restrain Duncan, and he went to bite one of their legs, then bit Gda Doyle’s hands so hard that he ripped off both her gloves.

Medical staff sedated Duncan, but he continued his aggressive behaviour and tried to flee until he fell asleep, continuing again when he awoke.

Keith Spencer BL, defending, said Duncan has a well-documented and long-standing drug addiction from the age of 15, progressing from cannabis to benzos, to cocaine and then to smoking crack.

Mr Spencer said his client’s entire life has been blighted by drugs, and his attempts to set up a construction company fell asunder.

Duncan took the stand and agreed that his drug use began when he suffered domestic violence as a child and turned to drugs to “block everything out”.

He told the court he has been drug-free for a couple of months and is now motivated to get clean for his fiancée, his five-year-old son and everybody.

“I’ve never been clean since I was 15. You’re talking 20 years,” he said.

Duncan said all his offending had been drug-related and that even in prison, addiction had been a problem. “An open jail is riddled with drugs,” he said.

Mr Spencer said a place had been made available at a rehabilitation centre for a 14-week residential course starting next week, October 17.

“My client is doing very well in custody and has an opportunity now to address his addiction. He’s willing to throw himself into any course that the court orders,” said Mr Spencer.

Judge Orla Crowe adjourned the matter for sentence to next Wednesday, October 11 to obtain urine analysis.