Distinctive runners led to armed robber getting caught

During his four-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week, 26-year-old Michael Ward, from 29 The New Glebe, Tuam, maintained it was a case of mistaken identity and he was not the man who went into Henchy’s Daybreak, Eyre Square, carrying a knife to rob the shop assistant of €580 shortly after 10pm on September 30, 2019.

A jury of six men and six women took just over two hours last Friday afternoon to decide otherwise, unanimously finding him guilty. Ward was remanded in custody to await sentence on July 22.

The jury was shown the CCTV from the shop’s three cameras. They captured a man coming in wearing a blue hoodie, which partially obscured his face.  He walked around the store and then went outside onto the street.

He came back into the store and went inside the counter near the front window. He is seen walking up to Mr Watte as he is serving a couple at a cash-guard till. The man was brandishing a box-cutter knife.

Mr Watte said the man demanded he open the till and give him the money. He explained to him he could not open that till.

He said the man insisted he give him money so he told him there was money in the other regular till.  He opened that till and the man grabbed the money and quickly left the shop.

The shock of what had just happened was evident as Mr Watte could be seen on the CCTV grabbing hold of the counter for a few moments to steady himself after the robber had left.

“I was scared, I could see the knife in his hand.  I opened the till and stood back.  The man took the money and left,” he said.

He served customers for a few minutes and then when the shop emptied out, he closed the door before calling the Gardai and his boss.

In reply to prosecuting barrister, Geri Silke, Mr Watte said he remembered the man was wearing brown shoes and a hoodie.

Katie Kerr gave evidence she and her ex-partner, Jonathan Cronin were in the shop that night.  She said Cronin stopped to talk to a man he knew in Eyre Square earlier.  She said she didn’t know this man but now knew him to be the accused.

She said she and Cronin went into the shop to get a soft drink and Ward followed them in and started talking to Cronin again.  She saw Ward go out and come back in again.  He had a knife in his hand, she said, and he demanded money from the shop assistant.

Viewing the CCTV, Ms Kerr said the man wearing the hoodie in the shop was Michael Ward.

Ms Kerr said Cronin and Ward left the shop together and she followed them.  She lost sight of them at Eglinton Street.  She walked down to Woodquay and 15 minutes later she saw then walking back towards her from the waterfront. She noticed Ward was wearing Cronin’s jacket.

Defence barrister, Conal McCarthy asked Ms Kerr why she didn’t ring the Gardai straight away after witnessing the robbery.  He said she did not look shocked in the CCTV footage after what happened and she and Cronin could be seen calmly buying scratch cards as the robbery was taking place just inside the counter. She was then captured on the CCTV calmly walking out of the shop behind both men.

He suggested she had not been an innocent bystander and was involved in the robbery.

Mr McCarthy said she lied to the jury because on the CCTV she could be seen buying a scratch card and not a drink.

He said the purchase of scratch cards by both her and Cronin at the precise time the robbery took place was to act as a ruse to keep Mr Watte at the till.

He suggested the couple acted as a barrier, blocking other customers from coming near the till until the robbery had taken place inside the counter.

She denied knowing anything about the robbery.

Mr McCarthy put it to Kerr that she had a sense of loyalty to the father of her children and had not put the blame on him.

“You decided to throw my client ‘under the bus’. Mr Ward was not in the shop that night and the allegations you have made are a pack of lies,” he said.

“I didn’t make this story up.  What I’m saying is the truth,” Ms Kerr told the jury.

Detective Gerry Carroll told the jury that after Ward’s description was circulated, Garda Diarmuid Cloonan arrested him at 12.35am near the Kings Head. He was wearing a black and grey jacket – similar to the one worn by Cronin in the CCTV – and was also wearing brown shoes.

Det Carroll said he showed Ward the pair of brown runners he had been wearing when arrested. They had white soles and a white stripe on the uppers, running diagonally from the laces to the sole. He agreed with Det Carroll that they were unusual.

Det Carroll said he also showed Ward €140 cash which was found on him following his arrest the previous night.

Ward said he got €60 from a girl, €30 was his own and the rest was from begging. He conceded he could not account for where the cash came from.

Ward identified Jonathan Cronin on the CCTV footage. He said he didn’t know who Cronin was talking to in the shop.

He agreed the jacket he had been wearing when arrested was similar to the one worn by Cronin in the CCTV.

He denied on several occasions during further questioning over three interviews that he was the man wearing the hoodie.

Det Carroll said he obtained a search warrant two days after the robbery to search Katie Kerr’s home for items relating to the robbery.  She made a statement naming Ward as the culprit.

Gardai believed Cronin had Ward’s hoodie, but a search of the house proved fruitless.

Judge Rory McCabe directed the preparation of reports on Ward prior to sentence taking place in July.