Three years for father-of-four who threatened to burn shop

A father-of-four who threatened to burn a shop has been sentenced to three years.

Anthony Piercy (33) of Esmondale, Naas, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making demands with menace on March 14, 2013 and to two charges of making threats to damage property on March 14th and March 15th, 2013. His previous convictions are mostly for District Court offences apart from a two-year jail term for robbery handed down in 2008.

The court heard that Piercy believed Martin Gallagher, the owner of Glenshane Stores in Tallaght, was responsible for €30,000 worth of damage caused to his Tallaght home.

He twice threatened to use pipe bombs on the shop and phoned Mr Gallagher’s partner, demanding money and threatening to burn the shop if Mr Gallagher refused to meet him face-to-face.

Kevin White, defending, told Judge Martin Nolan that this claim was “unsubstantiated” and Piercy had no proof.

He said Piercy and his family moved to Naas following the attack on his home and while he was living there, he was told Mr Gallagher was responsible for the damage.

“He allowed it to fester in his mind and he acted on it,” said Mr White. “He wasn’t thinking straight but in the state he was in at the time, he wrongly believed that the man had something to do with it.”

Piercy arrived at Glenshane Stores at 8am and asked staff to give him Mr Gallagher’s phone number. He said his house had been “broken up” the previous year and he had been told at a house party that Mr Gallagher was responsible.

‘Man of my word’

He managed to get a phone number for the owner's partner, Lisa Plunkett. He told the staff that if the phone number supplied turned out to be incorrect, he would come back with three pipe bombs, "to prove I am a man of my word".

Garda Dolores Walsh told James Dwyer, prosecuting, that Piercy phoned Ms Plunkett, two hours later and said he wanted to meet Mr Gallagher "face to face".

He said he had been told by “a reliable source that Martin had something to do with my house being smashed up”.

Piercy told Ms Plunkett: “You want to get him to meet up today or the shop will be burned.”

The following day Piercy returned to Glenshane Stores and told a staff member that the shop would be closed at 3pm and he would clear everything to the value of €30,000, which he said was owed to him for the damage caused to his home.

He said he would have 10 pipe bombs with him this time.

Judge Nolan suspended the final 18 months of the sentence after he accepted that Piercy was a good family man who has since stayed out of trouble.

He said he had “a wrong and irrational belief” that Mr Gallagher had been responsible for the damage caused to his house and described it as “a false supposition”.

Judge Nolan said the threats were believable and terrified the people involved. He added that Piercy should have gone to the gardaí­ rather than dealing with it as he had.