Man jailed for rhino horn robbery

A second man has been jailed for the robbery of a £20,000 rhino horn in Newark.

Daniel O’Brien, 43, of Orchard Drive, Cottenham, Cambridge, pleaded guilty to robbery at Nottingham Crown Court.

O’Brien was one of two men who robbed an antique dealer in Newark on 11 June 2011. In 2013 Michael Kealy, 27, of Abbeylands, Askeaton, Co Limerick, was found guilty of robbery by joint enterprise, extradited from Ireland, and sentenced to prison.

Following the robbery which took place in Lincoln Road, Newark, at 10.55am O’Brien was arrested and charged in December 2011. He then travelled to Europe and spent 18 months evading capture until his arrest on 19 October 2013.

The court heard that on June 11 O’Brien and Kealy had arranged to meet an antique dealer in the car park of a MacDonalds restaurant with a view to buying a rhino horn.

The meeting had been set up via another antique dealer who had put the victim in contact with the pair.But at the arranged meeting point a scuffle ensued and Kealy and O’Brien made off with the horn in a maroon 4x4 car.

The victim clung on to the vehicle but was thrown to the ground. As a result he spent several weeks at Queen’s Medical Centre and suffered bruising to the brain, cuts and a fractured wrist.

Phone and CCTV analysis linked Kealy and O’Brien to the scene of the incident. Kealy was arrested attempting to get on to a ferry in the Port of Harwich, Essex in 2011. O’Brien was circulated as wanted and later arrested in Cambridge following a lengthy search.But following his arrest he fled to Europe and following work with European law enforcement agency EuroPol he was traced to Germany and Spain where he was arrested at Alicante Airport.

He pleaded guilty to robbery and driving the vehicle and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

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