Five-man extortion gang threatened to bomb car

A father of seven who answered a knock at his front door one night, was punched and kicked by a five-man gang who threatened to place a bomb under his car if he did not pay them money.

Paul Mason, a native of Garristown, Dublin who now lives in Louth, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last December to entering the home of James Donovan (46) at Corrib View, Polkeen, Tuam Road, Galway, as a trespasser with intent to commit theft on October 30, 2013.

Garda Paul McNulty told the sentence hearing last week that Donovan was at home with his family at 9pm when he answered a knock at his front door to find five men outside.  They rushed at him and knocked him to the ground.

Four of the men beat him as the fifth man stood by the stairs in the hallway. They demanded money and asked where was his safe.

A piece of paper with a phone number written on it was thrown at him as he lay on the ground.

He was ordered to ring the phone number the next day at 7pm and if he didn’t co-operate a bomb would be placed under his car.

The intruders left and Mr Donovan contacted the Gardai straight away, giving them the phone number he had been instructed to ring the next day.

Gardai came across a car with three occupants including Mason, at 10.55pm that night at Briarhill Shopping Centre and found a piece of cardboard in the car with the same phone number written on it.

Mason was arrested the following January in Dundalk and charged with burglary at Donovan’s house.

He denied the charge, saying he had been in Galway that night to speak to a man about providing door security.

Donovan picked Mason out of an identity parade as being one of the men who had come to his house on the night of the attack.

After the positive identification, Mason admitted his involvement. He admitted punching Donovan but denied looking for money and denied being part of an organised gang.

“It’s the Gardai’s belief that Mr Donovan was visited by an illegal organisation for the purpose of extorting money as they believed he was a person of means,” Garda McNulty said.

Donovan, he said was a married man with seven children who lived in a four-bedroomed rented house and was in receipt of social welfare. He said Donovan had a interest in horses and kept some on rented lands.

Garda McNulty said Mason has been working as a security man in a nightclub in Swords, Co Dublin at the time of this offence but was now unemployed and had since moved to live in Co Louth.

Defence barrister, Brendan Browne said Mason had disassociated himself from certain individuals he would have known at the time and had not come to the attention of the Gardai since. He said this incident had caused his client “certain difficulties” in his life since.

In reply to Judge Rory McCabe, Garda McNulty said no one else had been charged and nothing to help Garda in that regard had come out in the interviews with Mason.

He confirmed a number of other people had been arrested in the car at Briarhill that night, but no charges were brought against them.

Mr Browne said a very positive probation report on his client had been handed into court.

He said he did not want to disclose in open court the reasons given by his client in the report why he found himself in that situation at Donovan’s house, but he accepted he did participate in the attack on the injured party.

Mason, he said, had a good work record, had a partner and child and had been assessed as being at a low risk of reoffending.

He said his client was offering an unreserved apology to the injured party.

Judge McCabe said he wondered if Mason had been recruited for something more than his brain power by the others involved in the burglary.

Accepting he was of otherwise good character, the Judge said he would have him assessed for community service in lieu of a three-year prison sentence.

He adjourned the matter to October for the preparation of a community service report by the probation service to see if Mason was deemed suitable to carry out work in the community in lieu of the prison sentence.