A man has pleaded guilty to engaging in a terrorist plot to attack a Galway mosque.<\/p>\n
At the non-jury Special Criminal Court on Monday, Karolis Peckauskas (39), with an address at Newfoundwell Road, Drogheda, Co Louth, entered a guilty plea on a charge of attempting to engage in a terrorist activity or a terrorist-linked activity contrary to the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005.<\/p>\n
The Lithuanian national had been charged with attempting to engage in a terrorist activity or a terrorist-linked activity to damage by fire Maryam Mosque, Old Cottages, Monivea Road, Galway, between November 4th and 5th, 2025, with the offence aggravated by hatred. <\/p>\n
On June 8th, the defendant\u2019s co-accused \u2013 Darren Gorman (33), of O\u2019Moore Place, Portlaoise, Co Laois; and Garrett Pollock (35), of Kilhorne Greene, Annalong, Co Down \u2013 pleaded guilty to the same offence.<\/p>\n
A fourth man \u2013 Charles Flynn (35) of Castlerock Avenue, Castleconnell, Co Limerick \u2013 remains charged with the same offence, with his case next up for mention on July 20th.<\/p>\n
Peckauskas, Gorman and Pollock will all return before the court on October 5th next for a sentence hearing.<\/p>\n
Peckauskas\u2019s last appearance was in May, when the court was told that he is also accused of having two hatchets, a knuckle duster and a hunting knife in a silver BMW car at O\u2019Moore Place, Portlaoise, on November 4th, 2025, contrary to the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act, 1990.<\/p>\n
He is further charged with the possession of an explosive substance \u2013 four threaded pipe end caps and six litres of hydrogen peroxide \u2013 under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he did not have it in his possession for a lawful object at O\u2019Moore Place on the same date.<\/p>\n
In judicial review proceedings before the High Court, Peckauskas has claimed that he cannot get a fair trial on the latter charge due to the wording of the Explosives Act that, he argues, places the burden on him to prove he is not morally culpable.<\/p>\n
A stay has been imposed on his prosecution on the explosives charge until judgment is returned on his High Court challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has pleaded guilty to engaging in a terrorist plot to attack a Galway mosque. At the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-524336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}