Burglar put gun to my head

Dad-of-four Gerry Garvey was handcuffed and his 16-year-old daughter bound with cable ties as the gang ordered his wife to give them money from a safe.

The vicious thugs then put a sawn-off shotgun to his head and threatened to kill his wife and children if they didn’t comply with their demands.

Today a Dublin suspect was in custody following the terrifying raid on the family’s home.

The 41-year-old from Clondalkin and a second suspect (48), from Cork, were being quizzed about the burglary.

Mr Garvey, his wife Anne, and their children – a twin boy and girl, aged 16 and twin boy and girl, aged 14 – were held hostage at their home by three men on Monday night.

The gang made off with a sum believed to be around €4,000 from the house near Pallasgreen in Limerick. The attack began at around 9.40pm, when the gang broke into Sunville House – which used to be a restaurant – through a patio door.

The three men wore balaclavas and were armed with a sledgehammer and sawn-off shotgun. After storming in, the men started screaming.

“They put a gun to my head as my daughter watched on. They were threatening to kill me and I tried to stay as calm as I could,” Gerry Garvey said.

Anne Garvey was upstairs when raiders broke in – and her husband and daughter were downstairs in the living room.

“They put handcuffs on Gerry and shoved him to the ground while one of them put the sawn-off shotgun to his temple.

“They wanted money and said if they did not get it they would shoot Gerry. They wanted the key (of the safe). I did not give the key to them, and opened the safe myself,” Mrs Garvey said.

Their 16-year-old daughter added: “Dad was on the floor and I was near him. The one with a sledge hammer was taking care of me and the guy with my dad was the main guy and had the gun and was just threatening to kill him.

“Then the guy with the sledgehammer brought me over to where my dad was so we would not go anywhere. One had the gun to my dad’s head and I was right beside him.

“They had me tied with a cable tie and I was crouched down by dad.”

After Mrs Garvey handed over money, the raiders fled. At around 11pm, gardai in Buttevant, Co Cork, stopped a car for speeding and became suspicious of the two male occupants.

They searched the grey BMW and found a large sum of cash.

They two men, which included the man from Clondalkin, were taken to Mallow Garda Station. They appeared before Mallow District Court yesterday in relation to the speeding offence, before they were arrested outside the courthouse in relation to the home invasion.

hnews@herald.ie