CITY TRIBUNE
Hijacker threatened to break driver’s jaw if he didn’t get him vodka
A man hijacked a car outside his local shop in broad daylight and held its driver hostage, threatening to break his jaw if he didn’t drive him to a supermarket to purchase vodka for him.
A jury took just 27 minutes to unanimously find 24-year-old Michael Barrett, from 46 Béal Srutha, Ballybane, guilty of falsely imprisoning the young driver of an Audi A4 and to unlawfully seizing his car, by using the threat of force to take control of the vehicle, outside the Gala shop at 2/3 Beal Srutha on May 3 last year.
Barrett’s defence team claimed during his two-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week that he asked the driver outside Gala to take him to Joyce’s in Ballybane, and that the driver had agreed to do so.
Paul Flannery SC, defending, said Barrett denied using the threat of violence to get the driver to take him to Joyce’s and he also denied demanding the driver come into Joyce’s with him to buy him vodka.
CCTV footage downloaded from cameras outside both supermarkets was shown to the jury of eight women and four men.
The footage from Gala showed the victim getting back into his car parked right outside the store after purchasing drinks while on his lunch break.
Barrett was seen approaching the car carrying a paper coffee cup and opening the front passenger’s door. He got in and a minute later the car drove off.
CCTV from Joyce’s picked up the car entering the carpark at speed a few minutes later. The car parked in a space directly across from the front door. The driver got out momentarily. Just as Barrett got out of the car on the passenger’s side, the driver is seen getting back into the car and driving off at speed. Barrett walked across the carpark in the direction of Béal Srutha.
Garda Lena Fregne told the jury she received a report of the alleged hijacking of a black Audi A4 and took photos of items seized inside the car. They included two empty paper coffee cups which were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for DNA analysis.
The driver told the jury he knew Barrett to see as he had grown up in the general area himself, but no longer lived there.
He said he asked Barrett to get out of the car as he was anxious to get back to work after his lunch break but Barrett locked the door and told him to drive or he would break his jaw and he would take the car off him anyway.
“He told me to bring him for a spin or he was going to hurt me. I felt extremely shook and threatened and I felt the smart thing to do would be to follow his orders until I got a chance to get away,” witness told the jury.
He said Barrett told him to drive around for a bit and he did what he was told.
As they approached Joyce’s, Barrett told him to pull into the carpark and said he wanted him to buy him vodka in the store.
The witness said he parked as close to the front door as he could as he felt that was his best option to get help because he knew there would be people and also CCTV cameras concentrated in that area.
He told Barrett he had no cash on him, only his cards, but he got out of the car and pretended to go in with him, before getting his chance to jump back in the car and lock the doors when Barrett got out on the passenger’s side.
Mr Flannery put it to him that Joyce’s was just a three to four minute drive from Gala and that he had voluntarily driven his client there.
“What he wanted from you was to get a lift up to Joyce’s so he could get some vodka and you shook hands with him when he got into the car. I suggest he didn’t threaten you,” Mr Flannery put to the witness.
“He threatened to break my jaw and said he didn’t care if I called the Gardai. I went along with things when the threats started.
“I was in such a state of shock, I don’t remember shaking his hand. I told him I was on my lunch break and couldn’t go anywhere,” he said.
Mr Flannery said the man had also refused to take a picture as requested by Barrett on Barrett’s phone and contended that he was not as scared as he was making out to the jury because he had refused to take the photo and had also refused to go into Joyce’s with his client to buy him drink.
“I have no recollection of being asked to take a photo. I was so shook I didn’t know what to do. I was trying to flee the situation but I wasn’t able to,” the man replied.
Garda Sean O’Connor said the driver of a black Audi flagged down his Garda van at Ard Alainn and told him what had just happened.
He and Garda Brendan Dooher searched the area and found Barrett back in Béal Srutha.
Prosecuting barrister, Geri Silke, said Barrett was arrested and questioned about the unlawful seizure or hijacking of the car. He provided a DNA sample which was sent for forensic analysis.
Mr Flannery said it was accepted Barrett’s DNA was found on the coffee cups and said his client would not be giving evidence in the trial.
Following closing submissions from both prosecuting and defence counsel, the jury deliberated for 27 minutes before reaching its unanimous verdict of guilty to both charges.
Barrett was remanded in custody to await sentence on July 22. The court heard he was already in custody awaiting sentence on that date for other matters. His free legal aid certificate was extended to cover the cost of obtaining a psychiatric report on him for that date along with an up-to-date probation report.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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