Mark Corcoran was asleep in the middle of the night when he was woken by a man in a black balaclava brandishing a large knife, and another man armed with a handgun.
It was the start of a terrifying ordeal for Mr Corcoran, his wife Emma and their three daughters, aged two, six and eight.
A gang of seven men from Dublin armed with a sawn-off shotgun, handgun and machete had made their way inside the Corcorans’ house in Burnchurch, a rural area outside Killenaule, Co Tipperary. They wanted money.
Mr Corcoran, who was sleeping in a back bedroom as he had an early start the next morning and didn’t want to wake the family when getting up, was led into the living area of the house and struck in the face with the butt of a gun. He suffered a fractured eye socket and later had to have four separate surgeries. He still has breathing problems as a result.
Hands tied
At one stage, he realised his eldest daughter was trying to come into the sitting room but his hands were tied behind his back with cable-ties and one of the raiders was kneeling on his back.
“The eldest two children were awake and in the hallway,” Det Sgt James White told Clonmel Circuit Court this week. “They had a clear view of what was going on. They could see what was happening to their father. They could hear the raiders making threats.”
Mr Corcoran “thought he was going to be shot”, the court heard. “He was in fear of his life.”
Ms Corcoran was awoken by the sound of glass breaking and made a 999 call before leaving her phone under the bed with the call still active. “The one thing that is most clear in the 999 recording was the terrified screams of the children,” Sgt White said.
‘Forcibly removed’
At one point, Ms Corcoran was “forcibly removed” from her bedroom and saw her husband being struck in the face. One of the raiders said to her: “We’ll kill your fucking kids.”
Sgt White said: “Emma Corcoran was without doubt in fear of her life and that of her three children.”
The Corcorans had a gym equipment-supply business at the time, which they have since closed, but there was no safe in the house.
The raiders, who were in the house for 15 minutes, took about €1,300 in cash, which represented the previous day’s takings and petty cash, as well as jewellery, including Ms Corcoran’s engagement ring worth €3,500 and a brooch she inherited from her late mother.
Some of the property was later recovered by gardaí, but the engagement ring was never found.
The court heard the gang members had travelled in convoy from Dublin to Tipperary, stealing a car in Castlecomer in Co Kilkenny on the way, on the night of November 20th-21st, 2013.
They took the Corcorans’ family car, a seven-seat Kia Sorrento, as well as their own Volkswagen Passat, to make their escape.
The two vehicles were spotted by gardaí travelling at high speed between the M7/M8 toll plaza and Monasterevin.
The Kia managed to get away at that stage but the Passat was stopped and five men inside arrested at 4.25am.
By coincidence, Mark Corcoran’s brother spotted the Kia sometime later on the motorway in Co Kildare, having being told of what happened. He alerted gardaí.
High-speed chase
After a high-speed chase in which the Kia weaved through rush-hour traffic near Newlands Cross, the two men in it were arrested.
Victim impact statements were read out in court for all five members of the family.
Mr Corcoran said he had felt an enormous sense of guilt at the time because he couldn’t do anything to protect his wife and children.“My eldest daughter was standing over me, crying ‘Daddy is dead’. I can only describe it as being like being at my own funeral, without being dead.”
In her statement, Emma Corcoran said the happiness and memories from the house in which she’d grown up had been taken away.
“I will never get over seeing my husband being beaten in front of me that night, and my kids looking on. My kids wake up every night with nightmares and live in fear of what happened.”
‘Blood everywhere’
The couple’s eldest daughter said in a victim impact statement: “I thought my Daddy was going to die when the robbers beat him up. There was blood everywhere. I don’t feel safe at home any more. Whenever I hear a bang, I think the robbers are back.”
The youngest daughter, who was two at the time, was awake during the incident and was found in her cot, “rocking herself and her teddy” and “shaking with fear”.
Outside court after sentences were handed down, solicitor Kieran Cleary read out a statement on behalf of the Corcorans in which they thanked family members, friends, members of the community, the people of Ireland for messages of support, their solicitor, and gardaí who had been “absolutely superb” throughout the investigation.
Chief Supt Catherine Kehoe, who has charge of the Tipperary Garda division, paid tribute to the Corcorans “for their courage and bravery throughout their ordeal” and wished them the best for the future.
