THE WIFE of a Co Limerick businessman whose family was robbed at gunpoint and tied up in their home has revealed how a relative stayed with them after the ordeal with a loaded gun beside his bed.
Siobhan Fitzpatrick was speaking at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday where a 25-year-old man was jailed for eight years for his part in an armed robbery nearly four years ago.
Declan Whyte, of Ballywire, Kilross, Co Tipperary, was convicted by a jury earlier this year of the false imprisonment of Séamus Morrissey and robbery of €14,000 from him at Lissard, Galbally, Co Limerick on September 19th, 2007. The 25-year-old had denied the charges.
During the trial, the jury heard how Mr Morrissey and his wife and two young daughters were locked in the hot press after a gang of five armed and masked men forced their way into their home with a sledgehammer.
Ms Fitzpatrick was upstairs reading bedtime stories to her daughters when the gang tied up her husband downstairs with cable ties before forcing her to take €14,000 out of a safe in the house.
The gang then tied her up and locked the couple and their two daughters into the hot press, from which they eventually managed to make their escape.
In her victim impact statement the mother described the invasion of her home as horrendous, and said “it is best described as the worst day of our lives”.
She said: “Our two daughters, now aged 10 and 11, are still scared going to bed. They are both afraid of the dark as a result and four years on, wake in the night scared,” she said.
She described how her eldest daughter wakes during the night after having bad dreams about robbers and stands at the top of the stairs calling for her parents.
The court heard the young girls attended a child psychologist for a number of months after the robbery and that the family considered selling their business and leaving the country.
“We stayed at my mum’s house for two weeks after the robbery and were very reluctant to move back to our home.
“When we did move back in, my brother stayed with us for almost two weeks with a loaded gun beside his bed,” she added.
Ms Fitzpatrick also described how she and her husband were reluctant to socialise after the robbery, and spoke of the difficulty in getting someone who would babysit.
“They were too scared to stay, and who could blame them. Our nieces and nephews were too scared to come visit with us, and would absolutely not sleep over.
“This was very upsetting for all involved, as prior to the robbery they visited and stayed quite often.”
Prosecuting senior counsel Michael Collins said the normal domestic scene of a family in their home had been “shattered” when the armed and masked gang broke into Morrissey’s rural home.
In one of his statements to gardaí, Declan Whyte said he drove the four other raiders to the house and said there were four shotguns in the boot of the Ford Mondeo car they travelled in.
In one Garda interview he said he had received €5,000 for the job, but he later said he was “being stupid” when he said this and that he had received €2,000 from the man who planned the robbery.
Before imposing sentence yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran described the robbery as a “horrendous experience”. He said the appropriate sentence was 10 years, but reduced the jail term to eight years because Whyte was not the prime motivator.