Man jailed for screw-driver raid on family home

A man who took part on an armed raid on a young family's home has been sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Anthony Hyland (aged 23), of Blackhorse Grove, Grangegorman was armed with a screwdriver and was one of four men who beat up and threatened Mr Seamus O'Farrell, the owner of the house on the Old Cabra Road, while his wife and young children slept upstairs.

They ransacked three rooms in the house demanded phones and a wallet and stole the keys for the family's jeep. Mr O' Farrell chased after the gang and managed to grab a hold of the car keys as the ringleader was driving the vehicle away but the raiders escaped after crashing the jeep into a pillar in the garden.

Hyland was still in the house when gardaí arrived because Mr O'Farrell was struggling with him as he was trying to steal a mountain bike.

When Hyland was arrested and being restrained by gardaí, he called Mr O'Farrell's wife "a silly tramp" and threatened to come back to the house.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary on January 18, 2006. He had 63 previous convictions and was sentenced to two years in prison last year after he was convicted by a jury of road traffic offences.

Hyland's co-accused, Anthony Burke (aged 23), also of Blackhorse Grove, and the only other raider to be arrested and convicted, received an eight-year sentence from Judge Frank O'Donnell after he pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in June 2006 as well as this burglary.

Judge Ryan said she took into account that Hyland had a tragic family background and had started drinking heavily after the death of his brother.

She also accepted he had shown remorse for his actions and offered his apologises to the family through gardaí. She suspended the last year of the sentence on condition that he get treatment for his alcohol addiction on his release from custody.

Garda Ciara Savage told prosecuting counsel, Ms Lisa Dempsey BL, that Mr O'Farrell was threatened with a screwdriver by Hyland when he confronted the four men in his living room while his wife and three children slept upstairs. His wife later called the gardai.

Mr O'Farrell was also threatened with a chisel the men searched the house for valuables.

Gda Savage agreed with defence counsel, Mr Damian Colgan BL, that Hyland was extremely intoxicated at the time of the burglary.

He was kept in a cell in the garda station overnight and when he woke the following morning he thought he had been arrested for a road traffic offence. He had no recollection of the burglary.

Gda Savage said she was not aware that Hyland had tried to hang himself while in garda custody previously and was also admitted to hospital after he tried to stab himself.

She accepted that Hyland had offered his apologises to Mr O'Farrell through gardaí and was horrified when told what he and his accomplices had put the man and his family through that night.