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Collopy brothers found not guilty of sulky driver attack after witness retracts statement

Vincent and Jonathan Collopy (37), who have previous convictions for drug dealing, shook hands and gave a thumbs up and a smile to loved ones

Today at 09:41

Two brothers from a well-known drug dealing clan in Limerick were today found not guilty of assaulting a sulky driver and causing him harm after it was alleged he was rammed off a road by a jeep they were travailing in.

Vincent Collopy (44) and Jonathan Collopy (37), both from St Mary’s Park, Limerick City, who have previous convictions including for drug dealing, shook hands and gave a thumbs up and a smile to loved ones in Court 3, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, after a jury acquitted them on all charges.

Judge Tom O’Donnell accepted “not guilty” verdicts of at least ten of the 12 jury members after the jury had deliberated for just over three hours without reaching an unanimous decision.

During a four-day trial last week the State alleged that Vincent Collopy drove a Audi Q7 jeep into the rear of a sulky cart, forcing it and its driver, Darren Wallace, off a roadway at or near Sandy Lane, Boher, Co Limerick, on April 7, 2020.

The State told the jury it had a central witness, the alleged victim, Darren Wallace, who had identified the two accused brothers because he had known them for around ten years previously.

Darren Wallace had given a statement to Gardai the day after the alleged incident identifying Vincent Collopy as the driver of the jeep, and Jonathan Collopy, as being a front passenger who along with another man leapt from the jeep and began beating him with a stick and a hurley.

The State showed the jury photographs of bruising to Mr Wallace’s head and body which it said was caused during the alleged incident.

However, when giving direct evidence on behalf of the prosecution, Darren Wallace said he had identified “the wrong men”, he said he “made a mistake” when he gave his statement to gardai.

Mr Wallace told the court he had been suffering with a “head injury” when he made the statement to gardai, and was “on heavy medication, so I wasn’t in my right mind”.

Detective Garda Niall Fitzgerald, Roxboro Road Garda Station, who took the statement from Mr Wallace, told the court Mr Wallace had been in “good health” and was “extremely sharp” at the time.

Jamie Wallace, a nephew of Darren Wallace, who the State alleged was assaulted by Vincent Collopy at the same location on the day, had told Gardai he was also struck by the jeep, but could not identify the occupants.

When Jamie Wallace was called to give evidence in front of the jury, he said he couldn’t remember making a statement to gardai, nor could he remember any incident of the sort happening. He also told the court he couldn’t not remember his own date of birth.

Judge Tom O’Donnell had directed the jury to find Vincent Collopy not guilty of assaulting Jamie Wallace and not guilty of dangerous driving.

Vincent Collopy had denied these charges as well as charges of assaulting Darren Wallace causing him harm, and, endangerment,.

Jonathan Collopy had denied two charges including, assaulting Darren Wallace causing him harm, and, production of an offensive weapon, namely a stick.

Judge O’Donnell thanked the jury for their time and absolved them from jury service for the next six years.

PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS

In 2006 Vincent and Jonathan Collopy were each jailed for five years with the final 12 months suspended after they pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and heroin for sale or supply after undercover gardai had purchased drugs from a house in St Mary’s Park during a garda surveillance operation codenamed “Operation Clean Streets” in 2004.

Their sentencing hearing in 2006 heard that the house in question was fortified with a steel door inside a front PVC door, forcing gardai to break an upstairs window to gain access, when they raided the property and another location in 2005, and found cocaine, heroin, amphetamine tablets and €7,000 cash.

Vincent Collopy is currently serving a six year jail sentence with the final 18 months suspended imposed in January last year for possessing over €10,000 worth of cocaine for sale or supply at Westbury Corbally in May 2022.

Vincent Collopy was also previously jailed in 2016 for five years with the final two years suspended after pleading guilty to intimidating a former criminal associate Willie Moran who had made a statement against two of his brothers Damien Collopy and Kieran Collopy.

Daniel and Kieran were each jailed in 2011 for eight years with the final three suspended (reduced by a further three months for Damien Collopy at the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2013) after they pleaded guilty to threatening to kill or cause serous harm to Mr Moran, whom they had alleged had owed €5,000 cash to their brother Philip Collopy who accidentally shot himself and died in 2009.

Their brothers Brian Collopy and Kieran Collopy were released from jail in 2021 after serving five years of an eight year sentence for drug dealing in 2016 when gardai apprehended them wrapping €37,000 worth of heroin at a house in St Mary’s Park, the state described the property as a “commercial drug factory”.

Another brother Raymond Collopy was convicted of engaging in violence along with eight others in the car park of a fast food premises in Limerick in 2003 at the height of a gangland feud involving rival crime families.

Brian Collopy’s son, Kenneth Collopy is serving life in jail for the gun murder of innocent Limerick carpenter Daniel Fitzgerald (25) in 2009.