Burglar stabbed couple during attempt to steal car keys

“It was like a scene from a horror movie”, was how a young man described the moment an armed intruder stabbed him and his wife in her parent’s home earlier this year.

The intruder, Tony McDonagh (30), who had been living in the UK for years, and came originally from Innishanagh Park, Newcastle, was “high” on a cocktail of drink and drugs when he broke into the house in Bushypark looking for keys to the car parked outside, grabbed a knife from the kitchen table and made his way to the sitting room, where he attacked the couple.

He managed to steal their car, but crashed it down the road and was arrested at the scene. He has been in custody since the incident happened on February 13 last and was brought before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week for sentence.

McDonagh pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, robbery, assault causing harm, production of weapons, stealing a car and drink driving.

Garda Gerard Brady told the hearing that Gardai received numerous calls in relation to various incidents which occurred within a short space of time on the night in question.

The first incident involved a motorist, who had been driving towards Glenlo Abbey Hotel on the Moycullen Road at 9.50pm when he encountered a man walking in the middle of the road.  The driver had to stop the car to avoid a collision and as he did so, the man suddenly jumped into his car and held the serrated edge of a broken Red Bull can up to his neck.

The driver managed to push his attacker out of the car before driving off.  He contacted Gardai. Garda Brady said that at around 10.30pm. Gardai received two separate reports; one of a road traffic accident at the Gortacleva road junction with the main Moycullen Road and the other about a burglary at a house in Gortacleva.

He arrived at the scene of the accident to find a car crashed into a wall at the junction.

McDonagh was at the wheel in a clearly intoxicated state. He had been injured in the collision but became very aggressive when Garda Brady approached him.

At the same time as this was happening, other Gardai went to the house in Gortacleva where they found a couple with serious stab wounds to their hands.

They told Gardai they had been in the sitting of the woman’s parent’s home, watching television when a man entered the room brandishing a large kitchen knife.

He demanded the keys for their car and then sat down, telling the couple to tie themselves up.

The couple attempted to flee the room and a tussle ensued between them and the armed intruder.

They sustained deep lacerations to their hands while trying to fend off the knife.

McDonagh grabbed the car keys and stole the car, crashing it at the nearby junction.

The man who had earlier been threatened with the Red Bull can, happened to be driving in from Moycullen when he came on a number of Gardai restraining McDonagh on the ground at the scene. He positively identified McDonagh as the man who had threatened him less than an hour earlier with the can.

Medical reports handed into court stated the woman had received deep lacerations to her left hand, particularly to the base of her thumb, consistent with holding the blade of the knife while trying to defend herself.

Her husband also received three deep lacerations to the palm in his left hand and had been left with permanent damage to tendons in his little finger.

The couple, who were present in court, asked Garda Brady to read their victim impact statements into evidence.

Both statements recounted the terrifying ordeal they had gone through that night.

“When the attack happened, I had no idea if we would live or die. Afterwards, I didn’t feel safe until we were locked inside a neighbour’s house.

“We were afraid he would come around the side of the house again. It was like a scene from a horror movie, completely terrifying,” the man said in his statement.

His wife expressed profound sorrow and sadness that she would never feel safe or secure again in her parent’s home.

She said she was now constantly on the alert and had recurring nightmares.

Garda Brady confirmed that McDonagh had 50 previous convictions recorded in the UK.

They involved thefts, intimidation of a witness and a juror, robbery, battery, assaults, aggravated car theft, racially threatening incidents, breach of bail, along with numerous public order and motoring offences.

Most recently, he had received a 19-month sentence in 2016 for intimidating a juror and a witness in a trial.

“The poor people, they must have been terrified,” McDonagh replied when Gardai told them of the couple’s injuries.

Defence barrister, Geri Silke said McDonagh had an unfortunate upbringing in Galway before the went to the UK as a teenager.  She said he had just arrived in Galway the day these offences occurred and had consumed vodka and Red Bull before getting drugs from someone in Eyre Square.

Judge Rory McCabe sentenced McDonagh to six years in prison for the burglary and a further six years for the robbery at the house to run concurrently.  He imposed varying, lesser, concurrent sentences for the remaining offences and disqualified McDonagh from driving for two years on the drink driving and car theft charges.

He suspended the final 18 months of the sentences for five years and said the accused was entitled to credit for time already spent in prison while awaiting sentence.