Pensioner crawled for help after being ‘left for dead’ in his home by raiders
Seamus Lawlor, 75, had his arms and legs bound by four masked men who entered his home at Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, in the early hours of last Saturday.
Mr Lawlor, a curator at the Nore View Folk and Heritage Museum, was listening to local radio when the men burst into his house and began demanding money.
They tied him up and placed a cover over his head before they spent an hour searching the house for valuables.
They left the premises without untying him, meaning he had to move inch by inch on his stomach down his hall way to the front door. It took him three hours and once there he managed to prise the door open, but he was not discovered for another four hours until a man out walking his dog spotted him lying on the ground.
Gardaí and the emergency services were then alerted and he was able to receive treatment.
Mr Lawlor told RTÉ’s Liveline that three men initially entered his bedroom: “They [the raiders] made a drive at me.
“I kept defending myself and I was trying to make an effort to get out of the bed to take them on.”
He said a fourth man then came into the room and he was overpowered. He told them he did not have any money despite being repeatedly shouted at to tell them where he kept his cash. The raiders eventually placed a rag in his mouth.
Once the raiders had left he got down on the ground and managed to get the rag from his mouth. He then managed to free his legs, but he was still left on the ground and with no option but to shuffle slowly towards the front door. “I took my half an hour to get the door open,” he said, adding that after the ordeal he was “in awful pain”.
Mr Lawlor told the Kilkenny People: “I honestly think they left me for dead. I am thanking God for my life.”
* Gardaí have appealed for anyone with any information or who might have visited the museum last week to contact them at 056 7724222 or on the Garda Confidential Line.
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