Offaly pharmacy robber armed with shotgun taken down by garda
Staff and customer at Tullamore chemist traumatised by afternoon raider who handed in list of 'heavy duty downers' and demanded cash
A GARDA who took on a man armed with a shotgun after he had robbed a Tullamore pharmacy was praised by a Circuit Court judge.
Judge Keenan Johnson commended Garda Alan Mills after hearing details of how a man entered McCormack's Pharmacy, Kilbeggan Bridge, Tullamore and frightened staff and a customer before leaving with €530 cash and €192 worth of medication.
A sentencing hearing at the local Circuit Court was told that Philip Maguire (37), Columba's Place, Tullamore, had a list of medications written out and presented it in the pharmacy.
The court was also told Mr Maguire had previously been given a six-year suspended sentence for robbery and was subject to the terms of that sentence when he committed the Tullamore offence.
Replying to Shane Geraghty, BL, prosecuting (instructed by Sandra Mahon, Offaly state solicitor), Garda Alan Mills said Annette Donlon Nestor, a pharmacy technician manager in the pharmacy, was dealing with customers at 4.10pm on October 22 last when there was a scream and she saw a “big man with a mask on” at the counter.
Ms Nestor grabbed another staff member, Nicole Cromack and pushed her behind her. Ms Nestor thought she knew the man as a customer and said he had a hoodie with the hood up, a wooly hat down over his face with cuts for his eyes, and a pair of yellow gardening gloves.
The man had a “gun out” when she saw him and she saw the base of a sawn-off shotgun with a black bin bag wrapped around it. He also had a laptop case.
While he did not point the gun directly at her he was holding it and she was petrified and she went into survival mode.
The man put a note on the counter with a handwritten long list of medications and “all cash” on it and she grabbed the note and pressed two panic buttons.
She said she got medications which were on the list and pushed two other staff members to get out, seeing him with the gun pointed at a customer who had her hands up.
The man was stuffing the medications into his bag and she gave him the cash from the till and told him that she did not stock Fentanyl. She pressed the panic buttons again and the alarm went off and was told by another staff member that there was a garda outside.
The robber left by the front door and she shouted at the garda that the man had a gun while she was dialling 911.
Outside she saw the man engage with the garda at a flowerpot and she then saw the man on the ground while she was on the phone to the garda control room.
Ms Nestor told gardai she did not sleep that night and checked on her kids 50 times and she was the only person who turned up at the shop the following day.
Nicole Cromack told gardai she saw the wooden handle of the gun and remembered Ms Nestor pushing herself in front to protect her.
Gardai were told by other staff that the man said “I'm not going to hurt you”. They knew he had a sawn-off shotgun because he dropped it and the list of medication the man wanted was “strong drugs”.
A customer in the shop, Irene Macken, told gardai she was scared and panicked and was breathing heavily but felt reassured the gardai had got the man.
In his direct evidence Garda Mills told the court he heard his verified alarm go off as he was walking past the chemist and he saw a male running along and then heard a lady shouting, “We've been robbed”.
He asked the male to stop but he did not and the man then turned around and Garda Mills saw a shotgun.
“I lunged at the defendant before he could point the shotgun at me and I apprehended him to the ground,” he said.
While he was doing that he was hit on the head with the shotgun and then two members of the public, Wayne Cronly and Ger Dunne, came to assist while he was handcuffing and arresting the man.
Mr Dunne told gardai that he was out for a walk and saw a guy exiting the pharmacy with “an object like a firearm” and he shouted at the guard, “He has a gun”.
He saw the guard tackle the male and he went across the road to help Garda Mills by kicking the weapon away.
Mr Cronly ran up to them and asked if they needed help and then stayed until other gardai arrived. He saw the pharmacist “shaking” and told gardai he “could see the fear in her eyes”.
The court was also told the firearm was examined by the garda ballistics section and was in poor condition and unable to function.
Judge Johnson commented: “It was unable to function as designed but it was still used.”
Garda Mills said that when he was interviewed after being arrested the accused admitted to everything.
A native of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, he moved to Abbeyleix “when he was young enough”.
The night before the robbery he'd been awake all night and when he got up he wanted to get enough drugs to “stop the voice” and have the option of ending his life.
He said he had no job or savings and didn't want to be a burden on his parents who were retiring age.
He went to the pharmacy on a bike. He told gardai: “I'd written down some heavy duty downers on a piece of paper.”
Mr Maguire also said the gun was an “ornament” and said he remembered running after the robbery and he “didn't even bring the bike with him” and panicking.
He said he swung the gun at the garda and apologised, telling him “I'm glad I didn't brain you” and said he was not a violent man.
When CCTV footage recorded during the robbery was shown to him he said the gun “wasn't a gun” to his knowledge and he did not want to look at the footage.
The recording was played in court and in it he could be seen holding the shotgun at the till and pointing to his list and then leaving after being handed items.
In earlier footage he was recorded arriving on a bike and Garda Mills estimated his residence was two to three kilometres away.
Further footage from a camera outside the pharmacy showed him walking out and seeing the garda and leaving in the direction of Convent View instead of getting his bike.
A victim impact statement from Ms Donlon Nestor read by Garda Mills outlined the stress caused to her since the robbery and how she had tried to get the man out of the shop as fast as possible.
“Since that day I relived that day so many times in my head as I am the manager of the pharmacy,” the statement said.
She said she suffered from nightmares, panic attacks, ongoing fear and anxiety over her family and was anxious about “tall large men” entering the shop.
Ms Donlon Nestor said she put up a sign on the shop that all helmets and hoodies should be removed when entering the premises.
A week after the robbery she had routine surgery in Dublin at Halloween and when she heard fireworks going off all she could think about was gunshots. “It was such a scary few nights,” she said.
She said she now locked the doors of her house in the countryside, has to get her brother to walk her daughter from the farm, no longer walked the fields or canal bank alone and sometimes woke up at night with panic attacks.
She said she no longer felt safe alone at home and her husband had to give up his job as a truck driver on the continent so he could be home at night.
Though she was brought up in a house around shotguns she now felt very anxious about shotguns even if they are locked away.
“This experience has changed my life in a major way. I was just doing my job when I suddenly feared for my life and my staff's life and safety.”
Her GP had recommended that she speak to a counsellor.
A victim impact from Nicole Cromack similarly outlined how the robbery had changed her life significantly, how she had become more withdrawn, less social and no longer felt comfortable going out at night or for coffee.
Ms Cromack said activities like walking the dog or going to the gym were now difficult and there was also an impact on her family life because she of her anxiety.
She no longer felt confident and motivated to become a pharmacy technician and her mental health had suffered a lot.
She was overly fearful at work and feared customers coming in to the pharmacy with scarves or masks.
Another staff member, Marie Delaney, said the day of the robbery was one of the worst she'd every experienced and since then she was constantly on edge.
She had nightmares, stomach problems, avoided crowds, had difficulty feeling safe and feared sudden loud noises.
“He stood in front of me with a gun not knowing if he was going to use it. It was a day that will haunt me for ever.”
Further victim impact statements described how staff and a customer feared for their lives, how the incident affected the victims' sense of safety and how the fear and shock affected day to day well being.
Garda Mills told the court the accused had 58 previous convictions and had received a suspended sentence for a robbery from a pharmacy in Abbeyleix in November 2020.
He had also robbed a pharmacy in Co Kilkenny in 2016 and he had a large number of other theft convictions.
The accused, who said he suffered from memory loss, had been in custody since the day of the Tullamore robbery.
Replying to David Nugent, BL, defending (instructed by Aisling Maloney, solicitor), Garda Mills said a knife which was in Mr Maguire's bag was not produced during the robbery.
Mr Nugent said the accused had asked him to say he apologised for what he had done.
Judge Johnson commended Garda Mills: “That was a very brave thing you did, tackling him when he was armed like that.”
He said the garda had eased the concerns of all involved. “You did a brilliant job, well done.”
The court was told Mr Maguire said he had an acquired medical condition which resulted in him having difficulty recalling certain things and Mr Nugent said a forensic psychiatric report was being sought. He said the court had heard his client refer to having heard voices in his head.
Mr Nugent said a number of GP letters were available to the court and he asked that finalisation of the matter be adjourned to the sitting of the Circuit Court in November.
A probation report had been prepared and Judge Johnson noted Mr Maguire had been assessed at low risk of reoffending in the next 12 months and remarked that seemed “extraordinary”.
The judge remanded Mr Maguire in custody to November 17 next for the forensic report because it would be necessary before sentencing.
He said the crime was appalling and the victims had similar symptoms to post traumatic stress disorder.
“These are the consequence of someone taking a gun and going into a pharmacy, or any shop, and threatening the people there to get drugs or cash,” he said.
He said the huge negative impact would be taken into account in sentencing.
Mr Maguire had previously pleaded guilty to robbing €530 cash and €192 worth of medication at the pharmacy.
He also admitted possessing a shotgun with intent to commit robbery and having the shotgun with intent to prevent his arrest.
Mr Geraghty said two other charges admitted by Mr Maguire, possession of a knife and resisting Garda Mills, could be taken into consideration.
The maximum sentence available to the court is life in prison.
(Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme)