‘Bad apple’ jailed for 5 years over carjacking
During the 30-minute ordeal Francis Gavigan, aged 41, sought to reassure the two children in the car and showed them a memorial card of his late mother.
He said he was a “bad apple” and hated doing this but he was desperate and couldn’t rob banks any more.
Gavigan told the two boys they were lucky they had nice parents and said he had grown up in an “awful place surrounded by bad people”.
Gardaí later used the memorial card to help identify Gavigan, with an address at Cahir Park Cottages, Ardfinnan Road, Cahir, Co Tipperary.
Gavigan pleaded guilty to the robbery and false imprisonment of Eleanor McCarthy on May 16, 2014, in the Dublin 6 area.
Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal court, Judge Martin Nolan said the three victims had felt under severe threat and feared the worst.
“It is hard to know what would go through a person’s mind when a stranger jumps into your car and takes control of your life,” he said.
However, Judge Nolan said he was satisfied that Gavigan at no time intended to harm Mrs McCarthy or the children.
Garda Patrick Farrell told Garrett McCormack BL, prosecuting, that Ms McCarthy had been at the junction of Zion Road and Orwell Road when Gavigan jumped into the passenger side.
He threatened her with something black and rectangular and told her to stop beeping the horn or he would Taser her. “You’ll pass out and I’ll take the boys,” he warned.
Gavigan made Ms McCarthy drive to her home and got one of the children to fetch her wallet from the house. She then drove to the nearest ATM and withdrew €600 from AIB for Gavigan.
The court heard Gavigan was doing well in Limerick Prison and engaging with the chaplain there.
The sentence was backdated to May 17, 2014.
