Family tell of home raid terror
The owners of a County Galway business premises have told of the trauma they suffered at the hands of raiders who stole more than €10,000 from their property shortly after they closed up for the night.
Three raiders entered the Kiltullagh business, which is also the location for the local post office, and held the owners – who are in their 70s – captive for just less than an hour before making away with the cash.
They also inflicted a serious head injury to the son of the couple who operate the hardware and foodstore business in Kiltullagh, just three miles from Athenry.
It was a ruthless attack on a small family business in East Galway and the owners have been left devastated by what has happened.
Frank Duane and his wife Mary were held captive for less than an hour after the raiders burst through the door of their property on which their business premises and post office is located.
It is not the first time that they have been robbed as there was a break in to the premises as it was broken into a year ago.
Frank recalls how both he and his wife were subjected to an aggravated attack in their home and how their son Anthony was left bleeding from a head injury.
“I went into the sitting room and Mary was in the kitchen when the door swung open and people entered. One went into the kitchen and got Mary and the other came into the sitting room and got me.
“As I heard the commotion, I got up and then got this mighty belt across the shin by a pinch bar which was around three feet long. It knocked the life out of me because I did not know what was happening.
“The front door was a bit open but I was hit and knocked back into the couch. The man who hit me stood behind me and didn’t leave for 15 or 20 minutes.
“One man was with Mary in the kitchen and another was rooting around the place and then he came into me as asked me where was the gun left.
“It was obvious that they knew I had a gun. I had to tell them because they were going to hit me again. Once I got it once, there was every chance I was going to get it a second time.
“One of them got the gun but I didn’t know if it was loaded or not. I certainly would not have it loaded.
“They then got Mary and brought her out into the shop to turn off all of the alarms and to get to the safes. It was the longest time ever in my life.
“I was trying to rub my ankles but they wouldn’t let me. They wanted my arms across my chest and wouldn’t let me release them.
“They tried to open the post office safe but that was time locked but then they got to our own business safe which was not time locked. They opened that one and took all the money out of that one.
“Then Anthony came in because he had been alerted to the fact that there was something wrong. He got the word about 10 minutes after the incident taking place.
“He walked in and they clocked him on top of the head with the pinch bar and there was blood streaming off him. They came at him with a hammer and struck him in the shoulder. They hit him around 10 or 12 times around the body after that.
“They made him kneel down on the floor and the blood was pouring out of his head. They wouldn’t let us touch him. We couldn’t even give him a towel to stop the bleeding.
“Then they marched me out to get the keys of the cigarette cabinet so I hadn’t a clue where they were located.
“Eventually they brought Mary and Anthony out and locked us all in a store room. They told us that if we ever came out that they would shoot us. So we had to wait a while until they went.
“Lucky enough there was a key inside to unlock the door to let us out. Otherwise I don’t know how long we would have been there,” Frank said.
Gardaí are monitoring CCTV around Athenry, Ballinasloe and along the M6 motorway in an effort to catch the culprits of the aggravated burglary.