Three raiders who burst in to a family home in the early morning, terrorising a couple in their 70s, their daughter and a six-year-old grandchild, have been jailed.
Michael Royal (48), Thomas Dwyer (24) and Patrick Fitzgerald (48) were in the company of another unidentified man when they burst into the home in Monkstown, Co Dublin.
They tied up the man, dragged his wife, daughter and grandchild out of their beds and started making demands, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told on Tuesday.
During the course of the violent home invasion, the man was hit on the head with a metal bar and his daughter was dragged around by her hair when she tried to escape.
The court heard one of the men made demands of the resident relating to a bank he used to work for but he had been retired for 20 years and was unable to provide any information, Detective Superintendent Brian O’Keeffe told the court.
Royal, of Tyrone Place, Inchicore, Dwyer, of Valeview Drive, Finglas and Fitzgerald, of Glenties Park, Finglas, each pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary and one count of false imprisonment at an address in Monkstown, Co Dublin on August 21, 2023. The maximum sentence for both offences is life imprisonment.
Royal has 50 previous convictions, including for burglary, robbery and serious drug offences. Dwyer has 25 previous convictions, including drugs and road traffic offences. Fitzgerald has 67 previous convictions including violent disorder, theft and public order offences.
Sentencing the three men, Judge Martin Nolan said the incident was a “terrifying experience” for all of the occupants of the house.
“It’s not clear why these four men came to this particular house,” the judge said. “It’s not clear why they picked on this particular family and these particular victims.”
He noted the ringleader of the incident has not been identified and not been prosecuted to date as a result. He said the crime was very serious, involving false imprisonment and an assault on a man in his 70s.
Judge Nolan set a headline sentence of 10½ years. He noted Royal and Fitzgerald have a higher number of convictions and more serious convictions compared to Dwyer, who was 23 at the time of the offence. He handed down a sentence of 7½ years to both Royal and Fitzgerald.
Taking into account Dwyer’s comparative youth and shorter conviction history, he jailed him for 5½ years.
The court heard the family’s ordeal started around 8.20am on the day in question when there was a knock on the door. When the homeowner opened the door, a man in a hi-vis vest pushed his way into the house, closely followed by three other men.
The man who led the group’s entry was described as the instigator of the incident. He has not been identified to date, Lisa Dempsey BL, prosecuting, said. The other three men were Royal, Dwyer and Fitzgerald.
The homeowner was forced to sit down in his diningroom and his hands were cable-tied in front of him. His daughter was then dragged out of her bed by a man in a hi-vis vest who told her he was from Bord Gáis. Her mother, who has mobility issues, was in bed listening to the radio and doing Sudoku when a man burst into her bedroom and forced her downstairs.
The six-year-old child, who had been spending the night in the grandparents' house, was also taken downstairs to the diningroom.
The instigator in the case was “doing all the talking”, the court heard. He started shouting at the retired man, who remained tied up, telling him he had “caused him trouble” and looking for names of people who worked in the bank. There was talk of showing the captives a gun, although none materialised.
The victim was confused as he had not worked in the bank for 20 years, and the group’s ringleader was calling him by a shortened version of his name that he did not use.
He was then taken up to his bedroom and cash was demanded from him. He pointed out a small amount he had in his bedside locker. When he was left alone in his bedroom for a short period, he managed to release one cable tie from his hand and crept out to the landing, grabbing a golf club on the way.
He encountered two of the men on the stairs and struck at them with the golf club, but they hit him over the head with a metal bar of some description, causing a significant head wound. He fell back on the stairs.
While this had been happening, the man’s daughter had managed to make it to the front door, but she was impeded by a safety lock and one of the men dragged her by the hair back up to her bedroom.
The woman in her 70s had been silently trying to attract the attention of her neighbours from the downstairs window, and while the men were distracted dealing with her husband and daughter, and arguing among themselves, she managed to make it out the front door.
She made it to the end of her driveway as her daughter also managed to exit the house and gardaí – who had been alerted by a number of independent witnesses – arrived on the scene.
The men had fled by this stage but were later traced by CCTV footage taken by gardaí from 28 different locations. They initially went to a BMW that had been stolen several months earlier and had false plates on it, but they weren’t able to get it started and dispersed from the scene.
The unidentified man was seen only briefly on CCTV before he disappeared. Royal separated from Dwyer and Fitzgerald and went into a local shop and bought some water, before going into a nearby church and then re-entering the shop to buy more water. He discarded items of clothing along the way and left the victim’s mobile phone in a pew in the church. He eventually got on a bus headed to the city centre.
Dwyer and Fitzgerald ran to the Dart station and got a train to town. The three men were all identified by gardaí reviewing the footage. Numerous items of clothing, a balaclava, gloves and two metal bars they left strewn around the local area were also seized. These were all DNA tested and matched to the trio.
A number of witnesses made statements to gardaí, including a postman and neighbours, one of whom managed to capture a brief video of the men fleeing the area.
The victim who was hit over the head was taken to hospital where he required 13 staples for his wound. He also suffered injuries to his elbow and knee. His daughter suffered bruising and pain as a result of being dragged around but did not require medical attention.
Some of the family members were in court for the sentencing. Victim impact statements were handed into court, but not read aloud.
John Fitzgerald SC, defending Royal, had a handwritten note of apology from his client for the court. He said Royal was “very moved” when he was shown the victim impact statements and very remorseful for his actions on the day.
The court heard Royal told gardaí he took part in the incident as a result of a drug debt. He has a long history of drug addiction and has spent several periods in custody. He has convictions dating back to 1991.
Mr Fitzgerald said his client’s actions after the offence – going to the shop, church and shop again – showed there was a “clear lack of sophistication and organisation”.
Bernard Condon SC, defending Fitzgerald, said his client’s mother died when he was a teenager and he was brought up by sisters. He had a history of addiction in his youth but things improved for him when he met his partner, with whom he has four children. He worked as a security guard for a period.
The court heard Fitzgerald started taking cocaine again after a stressful period in his family and ran up a drug debt. Like Royal, he told gardaí he agreed to take part in the targeting of the home as a result of this debt.
Ronan Kennedy SC, defending Dwyer, noted his client was 23 at the time of the offence and has no convictions for violence. He said before getting involved in this offence, Dwyer had taken steps to address his drug addiction. He expressed his remorse to the family for what they had been put through.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
