No jail for getaway driver from violent burglary that left Cork teenager terrorised

The defendant is to fly out of Ireland and return to Lithuania and have the balance of a three-year sentence suspended. File photo: Larry Cummins

A teenager suffered the most terrifying day of his life in a violent armed raid at his home when he was bundled into his bathroom and forced to hand over €50,000 in cash from the family safe.

Now one of the gang involved in this criminal escapade is to fly out of Ireland and return to Lithuania and have the balance of a three-year sentence suspended.

Judge Helen Boyle noted from the evidence of Detective Garda Diarmuid O’Neill at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Gytenis Miliauskas had been arrested in Germany last December on a European arrest warrant in relation to this part in the crime. He was taken back to Ireland where he has been in custody awaiting sentence.

Gardaí will take him from Cork Prison to Dublin Airport on Friday evening for him to fly back to Lithuania. On doing so, the balance of his three-year sentence will be suspended. He gave an undertaking not to return to Ireland for at least 14 years.

The teenage victim of the crime said that the attack that dated back to December 12, 2015, was the worst night of his life.

In a victim impact statement read on his behalf by Det. Garda O’Neill, he said: “Three men burst in the door and pushed me to the floor putting a coat over my head. I was in a massive panic. I felt something sticking into my shoulder. They shouted, ‘If you move, I shoot’.

“I could hear my home being ransacked. I genuinely thought they were going to kill me. One of these guys had what I believe to be a Taser – when the lights were off the crackle would come and I could see the blue lights.

“These guys then kicked me into the bathroom and locked me in there. I had to wait 20 minutes. They told me if I left they would kill me. 

I will never forget the cold sweat and panic. I still feel it to this day. There is not one day since that this doesn’t go through my head.

Miliauskas was one of two getaway drivers involved with the gang on this night. They got away with over €50,000 from the safe at his home in Midleton, County Cork.

Ray Boland, defending, said the 34-year-old had a girlfriend and four children back in Lithuania. “Unfortunately, he got involved in this after two weeks in Ireland,” Mr Boland said. Judge Boyle said that an aggravating factor in the case was that the accused fled and left the jurisdiction in 2015.

Mr Boland said Miliauskas had “the most minor part in these offences. He was the getaway driver. He was outside with a walkie-talkie. He obviously knew something nefarious was going on.” 

Case background

The background to the case was that an armed gang broke into a house in Midleton, forced the teenager to the floor, put a jacket over his head, barricaded him into a bathroom and snatched €50,000 in cash from a safe.

Miliauskas pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary on December 12, 2015, at a house in Midleton, Co Cork.

Detective Garda O’Neill said that on the night of December 12, 2015, three men entered the home at the address in Midleton, carrying hand guns and a Taser and forced the young man living there to the floor. They put a jacket over his head and took €50,000 in cash from a safe.

The three males placed the young man in a downstairs bathroom and barricaded the door and left in the vehicle which was nearby. The accused was the getaway driver.

A second member of the gang who drove a later part of the getaway was previously given a similar sentence.