THE Criminal justice system and the allocation of resources to local gardai have both been heavily criticised by the victims of two serious Limerick crimes.
In 2012, two county Limerick homes were separately targeted by armed gangs and last week, the prosecution of a number of the culprits concluded, leaving the victims still asking questions.
Tommy Creed is the brother of three pensioners who were tied up and beaten during an aggravated burglary at their home in Ballyluddy, Pallasgreen on May 31, 2012.
Last week, 29-year-old William Gammell avoided prison and was given a five-year suspended sentence for his role as the getaway driver for the armed and masked raiders who carried out the “barbaric attack” on three vulnerable pensioners.
Following the judgement, Mr Creed said that it was “unbelievable” to see 29-year-old William Gammell from Monard, Co. Tipperary walk free from Limerick Circuit Court.
74-year-old Willie Creed was tied up along with his sisters Nora and Chrissie when the armed and masked raiders burst into their home.
But although Gammell denied entering the house, Tommy said that he was still “the main culprit – one way or another.
Mr Creed added that even if Gammell wasn’t in the house during the attack, “it was he that brought the other two culprits with him – he cased the house – ’twas he that knew all the information about where the house was and as far as I was concerned he was the main culprit.”
On the 29-year-old walking free from court last week, Mr Creed said “to get away with a suspended sentence is just unbelievable”.
Meantime, a father of four who was tied up and told his daughter would be killed by a gang of armed raiders if money wasn’t handed over, has criticised the budgetary spending on garda resources and the fact that money is readily available for “the courts and free legal aid”.
Gerry Garvey was held at gunpoint when his home was targeted during an aggravated burglary in April 2012. The incident shocked the community at large while the Garvey family say that the raid has changed their lives for ever.
In the wake of the armed robbery at his Sunville House home in Pallasgreen, Mr Garvey said that his family received fantastic support from the local and regional gardai up until the apprehension and prosecution of a number of the gang. He still does and has thanked them for that.
However, Mr Garvey has been critical of the decisions on resourcing at a national level. Last week, two men, an armed raider and the getaway driver, were jailed for seven and five years respectively, but Mr Garvey said that the decisions made on justice financing need to be addressed immediately as the situation on the ground is “laughable”.
Speaking following the prosecution, Mr Garvey explained that “if there is an incident in Pallasgreen and an incident in Cappamore, it’s a toss of a coin to see which one the go to or they are going to have to call somebody else in as they only have one car between them, that’s laughable.
“It kind of frightens me when you look at the scale of things that they can’t give resources to preventative measures like having sufficient gardai on the beat …but when it comes to a major crime like this..there doesn’t seem to be any difficulty to provide the finance for free legal aid and for prisons”.
Meantime, it has emerged that despite the apprehension and prosecution of two of the gang members, the principle figures who organised the violent Dublin gang who carried out the raids used the Irish Rail network system to evade gardai.
Staff at Irish Rail were able to identify the gang leaders as being regular users of the Dublin to Limerick service when they were shown pictures of the men.
Investigations are still underway and gardai are looking to bring the principle organisers to justice.