Guilty verdict in Chawke shooting trial

A man has been found guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of shooting Dublin publican Charlie Chawke during an armed robbery at his premises in 2003.

Larry Cummins was remanded in custody for sentence next month in order to allow for the preparation of Mr Chawke’s victim impact statement.

Judge Frank O’Donnell thanked the jury and praised gardaí Nigel Burke, Michelle Gettings and David Sweeney saying: "I feel I should mention the three gardaí whose alertness on the occasion resulted in the apprehension and now the conviction of the accused."

Cummins (aged 54), of Mellows Road, Finglas, was found guilty unanimously by the jury of intentionally causing serious harm to Mr Chawke, robbery of €48,652 in cash and cheques, possession of a shotgun with the intention to commit robbery and two counts of possession of a shotgun with the intention of resisting arrest at The Goat Grill, Goatstown and Stillorgan Heath on October 6, 2003.

The jury took just under one and a half hours to return its guilty verdict. It had heard that Mr Chawke got into his car outside the pub around lunchtime with a bag containing cash and cheques. He said a man holding a shotgun approached his car, opened the door and demanded the bag. Mr Chawke grabbed for the gun but missed and the raider took aim and fired a shot into his right knee. His leg was later amputated.

The prosecution case was that this man was not Cummins but his accomplice in the joint enterprise.

A garda patrol car driven by garda Gettings had stopped at lights outside the pub at the time of the shooting. Gardaí Burke and Sweeney ran to the scene and struggled with the man as he ran back to his car. They backed off as Larry Cummins pointed a shotgun at them.

Garda Sweeny smashed the rear windscreen of the raiders’ car as it sped off. Judge O’Donnell said he had been "particularly alert" and that this had ensured the vehicle was "marked".

Garda Gettings told the jury how she had feared for her life and those of her colleagues as a shot was fired at her patrol car following a high-speed chase through a number of housing estates and into a cul de sac at Stillorgan Heath.

The raiders ran down a laneway pursued by gardaí Burke and Sweeney. Garda Sweeney told the jury he took a mountain bike from a passing member of the public and continued to chase the men. He found them hiding in bushes and arrested them with Garda Burke’s assistance.

Judge O’Donnell said it had not been an easy thing for the gardaí to tackle two armed men and said they had shown "great courage and bravery".

Mr Fergal Foley BL, (with Mr Paddy McCarthy SC), prosecuting, told Judge O’Donnell that his words would be conveyed to the Garda Commissioner who "should be informed of their conduct on that day".

Cummins earlier failed in an attempt to call his co-accused as a witness for the defence and his legal team asked to be discharged from the case. Mr Brendan Nix SC, defending, repeatedly told the court that he had no questions for witnesses and no objections to any part of the prosecution case "on the express instructions of my client".

Cummins made a closing speech to the jury in which he asked it to give him a retrial. He said 16 pages of "nice and neat" legal notes had been destroyed by a sprinkler going off in his cell and it had taken six minutes for someone to come to him "all I could think about was that my legal papers were gone, gone, gone".

He told the jury that there was no fire and he had felt like killing a warden who came to his cell, "but a little voice inside my head said: ‘Stay cool’."