Monaghan farmer gets suspended prison sentence for handling stolen cattle

Co Monaghan farmer William Cranston, from Drumnacrib, Skerrymore, Castleblayney, has been given a nine-month suspended prison sentence after being convicted on appeal this week of handling stolen cattle. At Thursday’s sentence hearing in Trim Circuit Court, he was also given a €4,000 fine and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.

Imposing sentence, Judge Sarah Berkely said that Cranston was highly culpable, must have premeditated the offence and that his case was at the higher end of this offence. He had a history of previous convictions, some of them recent and involving the Department of Agriculture, she said.

She noted that he maintained his innocence and maintained that the cattle in question were from his herd.

Co-operation with gardaí

She said that in his favour, Cranston had co-operated with gardaí. He had told the court that his finances were constrained, although there was, she said, a lack of clarity about this. He was married with three children, his wife was on certified sick leave and any custodial sentence would be a serious hardship for his family, she said. He had presented character references which showed him as hardworking, a supportive father and to be attending church.

The judge said she was giving Cranston one final opportunity. She suspended his sentence for three years on condition that he be bound to the peace, be of good behaviour and do community service. She gave him 12 months to pay the fine.

Cranston, who represented himself in court, asked where he would have to carry out the community service and noted that his three children were attending school. On being told that the community service would be in Co Monaghan, he thanked the judge and said he would serve it.

He told the judge that he would not be getting back into cattle again and that he had advised his children not to take up farming.

Appeal

Mr Cranston took the appeal after being convicted of the offences in the district court in 2015. The investigation arose after a Department of Agriculture veterinary official visited a meat plant in Co Meath in 2014 and observed that a cattle carcase weighing close to 400kg was identified as coming from an animal aged just 10 months.

DNA testing showed that the animal was, in fact, one of 11 that had been stolen from a Co Louth finisher.

This was established by testing DNA samples from dams of the stolen cattle. The cows were located on suckler farms in the west of Ireland, but traced through the Department’s AIMS system.

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