Man in court over foiled armed robbery

A man was today charged in connection with a foiled armed robbery in Dublin in which two men were shot dead by gardaí.

Gavin Farrelly, 27, from Lower Sheriff Street in Dublin’s North Inner City, was captured outside the Village Street Post Office in Lusk, Co Dublin, by amed detectives last Thursday.

At Dublin District Court, Sergeant George Coyne of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation said he had arrested Farrelly at 11.01pm last night in Blanchardstown Garda Station where he had been detained since the robbery.

He charged the accused with attempting to rob the post office and with possession of a firearm with the intention of committing robbery.

Sgt Coyne told the court that Farrelly replied “No comment” to both charges.

He applied to remand Farrelly in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court at 10.30am next Friday.

Solicitor Yvonne Banberry applied for bail on Farrelly’s behalf. However Sgt Coyne said he would be objecting to this on the grounds that there was a likelihood of a long sentence if Farrelly was convicted, the seriousness of the charge and the fact that he might not stand trial because bench warrants had to be issued for his arrest 18 months ago.

He said the Gardaí were also concerned about the potential intimidation of witnesses.

He told the court that three people burst into the post office in Lusk and terrorised staff and customers.

“The state case will be that the accused was one of these people,” he said.

He added: “I also believe we have a substantial amount of evidence against the accused.”

Farrelly, dressed in grey track suit bottoms and a white t-shirt with “Los Angeles” written on it, stood before the court with his red jacket hanging over his folded arms.

Sgt Coyne said there could be problems with the intimidation of witnesses if Farrelly were granted bail.

In response to questioning from Ms Banberry, he said that the bench warrant for Farrelly’s arrest had been issued on July 6 last year after he failed to turn up in court and had been executed the following day.

“It was evidence of his failure to appear previously,” he said.

Superintendent Tom Gallagher of Balbriggan garda station said he also objected to the granting of bail.

“We have a situation here Judge, where a number of people were terrorised by armed and masked people and he was arrested at the scene,” he said.

Ms Banberry said her client enjoyed the presumption of innocence and added that there were allegations against him.

But Judge Michael O’Leary, in refusing the bail application, said they were serious allegations and remanded him in custody.

An internal garda investigation, headed by Superintendent Kevin Ludlow, has been set up to investigate the shooting of two of the robbers at the post office by the Emergency Response Unit.

Gardaí have said that one of the men, Colm Griffin, 33, refused to lay down his weapon when challenged and that the other, Eric Hopkins, 24, had rushed at officers.

Two other men and a woman arrested in the aftermath of the raid were released without charge from garda custody last night.