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'You feel completely helpless': Couple describe the day a violent burglary gang raided their home

Just six weeks later, this same gang broke into the home of their elderly neighbours and viciously assaulted them.

A FAMILY HAVE described the terrifying ordeal they endured when a group of men broke into their home in Limerick, threatened them at gunpoint and assaulted them in April 2012.

Just weeks later, these same men brutally assaulted their elderly neighbours in another break-in.

On Friday, 54-year-old Patrick Roche, his son Philip Roche aged 24, both with addresses in Clondalkin in Dublin, and a son-in-law Alan Freeman with an address in Tipperary town were given lengthy prison sentences for their parts in the two violent robberies.

Gerry and Ann Garvey spoke to RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke this morning about the impact these incidents had on them and on their vulnerable neighbours.

“I heard a very loud bang,” Gerry said, explaining that at first he thought his teenage son and daughter in the next room had just broken something. He then heard glass smashing, and he saw a group of masked and armed men in his home.

When they came in first, it was the usual, shouting, screaming…they said things like ‘We’ll blow your head off’, ‘We’ll take your children, you’ll never see them again’.

“I was in the bath, which is your worst nightmare,” Ann said. Her children had run upstairs to warn her.

“I was mainly concerned with my son and daughter. They were told to lie down and the man put his foot on his [my son's] shoulder. My son was very angry. I didn’t know why he was so angry, I was afraid he was going to hit out at him.”

“I was forced down onto the ground and handcuffed behind my back and the butt of the gun literally forced into my forehead for a period,” Gerry told the radio programme. “It’s quite a frightening moment because you feel completely helpless, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to help yourself or your family.”

‘Left for dead’

Six weeks later, the same men broke into the home of their neighbours, Willie, Nora and Chrissie Creed. They tied up the three siblings, who are all in their 70s, before assaulting them, leaving them covered in blood.

Willie Creed was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver during the ordeal.

“Those three people, they were left for dead,” Ann Garvey said. “It was an incredible situation. It went on for two, two-and-a-half hours and nearly six years on they don’t go out, we don’t see them.”

“Time is a great healer and we have moved on with our lives, but you’ll move on from it, you’ll get on with it to some extent but you’ll never forget it,” her husband said.

Read: Three men jailed for nearly 50 years combined over ‘barbaric’ burglaries>

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    Mute John003
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    Nov 27th 2017, 2:07 PM

    Hope our judges and minster for justice were listening to this programme…All 3 defendents were out on bail…One had over 100 previous convictions…Gardai did a good job catching them but courts must play their part also…After say 50 previous convictions they should be electronically tagged when on bail….Free legal aid which they were given if they want to appeal this case…Should take into account access like a van or high powered car…Also any fines should be taken from.docisl.welfare payments

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Nov 27th 2017, 2:22 PM

    @John003: Oooooor, just torture and execute the pointless lowlife sc@m

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    Mute Jason
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    Nov 27th 2017, 2:26 PM

    @John003: Shame the didn’t run into that Brazilian lad a few stories down..

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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Nov 27th 2017, 2:54 PM

    @Jason: Shame they didn’t run into Padraig Nally.

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    Mute John Mc Donagh
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    Nov 27th 2017, 3:14 PM

    @John003:I agree wholeheartedly with everything you’ve written but you must learn to understand the crazy way the law works in this country. Judges all started off as lawyers and have many friends and colleagues still in that profession, To the legal profession a prolific criminal is like the proverbial “goose that lays the golden eggs” . If the criminal is locked up the goose stops laying so while the taxpayer keeps paying the goose will keep laying.

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Nov 27th 2017, 4:56 PM

    The reality is, if a few of these criminals were injured badly or shot as they broke in, fewer would do it but the law here is for criminals and not for victims? Even jails are like holiday camps for a good few of them? There is no justice here just a system set up for evil snowflakes?

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    Mute David Conroy
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    Nov 27th 2017, 7:14 PM

    @Alois Irlmaier: Always have weapons hidden throughout the house out of children’s reach but within your reach. Even if you never have to use them,it’s reassuring to know they are there.

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    Mute Martin
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    Nov 27th 2017, 5:06 PM

    The government have alot to answer for here. They ceased all recruitment in the Gardai and these criminal gangs ran amok for the best part of a decade without fear of being caught. In the meantime via the CSO they convinced us that burglaries were at an all time low. Pure lies. And as a country we continue to bend over backwards for the criminals thieves and wasters in the form of free legal aid, a handy social welfare system and a complimentary council house. Law & Order party me arse. Fine Gael allowed the likes of the Roches and the Freemans to cause havoc.

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    Mute Michael Reilly
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    Nov 27th 2017, 8:15 PM

    @Martin: Its the Judiciary and lawyers that had them out on bail.

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    Mute Dave barrett
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    Nov 27th 2017, 4:35 PM

    Give them solitary for the whole sentence. If and when released tag them. Could suggest beating crap out of them but the do gooders will come about their rights

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    Mute John O'Donovan
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    Nov 27th 2017, 9:37 PM

    Throw away the key , how does someone recover from something like that.

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    Mute Ciaran Peavoy
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    Nov 28th 2017, 6:25 AM

    How many convictions does one need to have before you are locked up for good. People
    Like this should never see the light of day again. It’s sad that a father took his son on this life of crime likely from a young age.

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    Mute Joe Dobias
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    Nov 27th 2017, 8:13 PM

    I see the suspended sentences.

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