A MAN was yesterday sentenced to 12 months in jail for trying to hold up a seaside resort bank with a hairbrush during a St Patrick’s weekend binge.
Donegal Circuit Court was told that 48-year-old Anthony McNulty was visiting Bundoran with in-laws and, after watching Celtic beat Rangers on a pub television, he awoke with a hangover and decided to rob the Bank of Ireland in the town’s Main Street last March 16th, the eve of St Patrick’s Day.
He took off his socks in the street, put them on his hands, pulled a hood over his head and entered the bank where he prodded the brush, concealed in a bag, into a customer’s back.
Then, the court heard, he shouted at the cashier: “Give me the f--king money or I’ll shoot him.” Manager Tara Rogers shouted to him to get out of her bank and he fled.
Judge John O’Hagan heard McNulty threw the brush in a bin and then went to a bookie’s to place a bet on a horse before visiting a pharmacy where he stole three packets of razor blades worth €77.
Gardaí, who by then had a description of him from bank customers, arrested him in the street 20 minutes after the attempted hold-up. He readily admitted his offences and had been in custody ever since.
Judge O’Hagan observed: “He never went back to find out did the horse win! To this day, he doesn’t know if the horse won or not.”
McNulty, of Abercorn, Paisley, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to attempting to rob the bank and to the theft of the razor blades. The court heard he had convictions in Scotland and had served five years of a seven-year sentence for using a firearm during a robbery.
Defence counsel Fiona Pekaar said McNulty was on heavy medication for pain and depression when in Bundoran and gardaí had to call a doctor when they arrested him.
He was an alcoholic and had been practically house-bound since his release from prison. He suffered a vicious attack on him in his own house which had deeply affected him. He had a partner of 20 years – who was sticking by him – and three daughters, one of whom married in October.
Judge O’Hagan noted that neither the customer who was threatened nor the manager knew McNulty only had a hairbrush. He paid tribute to Ms Rogers. He said: “She very bravely attempted to take him on.” The judge added McNulty was “caught red-handed” but had admitted his guilt from the very beginning, a factor he was taking into account when back-dating the sentence to March 16th.
Prison sources said that allowing for remission for good behaviour, McNulty could be freed immediately.