Horse trainer Stephen Mahon has avoided jail after paying out €6,500 in compensation to a 67-year-old farmer left ‘brokenhearted’ by sheep kills.

At Gort District Court last week, Judge Mary Larkin spared Mahon (53) from jail after a compensation payout to farmer John Moran, who has been farming for 52 years.

Judge Larkin said: "If Mr Mahon hadn’t paid the compensation, he would definitely be going to jail.”

Judge Larkin made her comment after imposing cumulative fines of €1,350 on Mr Mahon of The Ranch, Kilcolgan, concerning a sheep kill on 3 June 2018 at Caherpeak, Kilcolgan, involving two dogs, a rottweiler and a terrier, belonged to him.

Separate fines

Judge Larkin imposed six separate fines concerning six separate offences concerning the two dogs.

The largest fine of €500 concerned Mr Mahon being an owner of a dog which worried livestock on 3 June 2018.

Judge Larkin told the court that “this was a particularly egregious matter”.

Judge Larkin said that Mr Mahon’s dogs killed an innocent person’s sheep and “created havoc on the night in question”. The number of sheep killed on 3 June 2018 incident was not disclosed at the sentencing hearing.

Judge Larkin said that Mr Mahon defended the prosecution taken against him and commented that Mr Mahon’s dogs on the night “were vicious”.

Judge Larkin stated: “It was a particularly nasty event.”

Judge Larkin said that Mr Mahon had at all times denied owning the dogs.

Judge Larkin also imposed an order that Mr Mahon not own any dogs into the future.

Mr Mahon’s barrister told the court that father of two Mahon is a former horse trainer and is currently unemployed.

He said: “Mr Mahon had paid over a substantial amount of compensation and apologises.”

Suspension

Last June, in an unrelated matter, Mr Mahon was given the longest ban ever handed out to a horse trainer here at four years for breaching animal welfare rules on the back of two inspections of his Co Galway yard in April 2021.

The four-year suspension by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) was reduced last September by six months on appeal.

Farmer in the case before Gort District Court, John Moran said that he was “happy to hear” the order that Mr Mahon can no longer own dogs.

Speaking outside court, Mr Moran said: “This is not about money. It is about cruelty. No sheep should have to suffer like that. The cruelty side is not acceptable to anyone.”

Separate case

Mr Moran has previously told Gort District Court in a separate unrelated sheep kill case that he has been left ‘brokenhearted” over nine sheep kills over the years that has left 68 sheep dead. He said: "I don't know of any farmer who has lost 68 sheep like that."

Outside court, Mr Moran said after one sheep kill, “I had a full trailer of dead sheep heading over to the knackery”.

Mr Moran said that it is desperate to come across a sheep kill. He said: “It is not easy to take. It is very hard to see sheep suffer so much.”

Mr Moran said he has 220 breeding ewes that produce 370 lambs each year.