A FAMILY who were victims of an attempted abduction by an armed gang yesterday are understood to be shaken but physically unharmed by their ordeal.
Four masked and armed men attempted to abduct Martin Lambe, who works as a driver for security company G4S Cash Solutions, his pregnant wife Sharon, and their two-year-old son in their home in Kilmeade, Co Kildare, about 5km (three miles) outside Athy. Mr Lambe, in his 30s, was preparing to leave for work when the men attempted to take the family hostage. However, the plan was foiled when his wife activated a panic alarm in the house, alerting gardaí.
The raiders fled the scene on foot, abandoning a white transit-style van at the premises. Gardaí said the raiders may have been picked up by a car nearby.
The van was removed from outside the family home at 3.30pm yesterday following technical examinations, while forensic investigations including fingerprinting were continuing yesterday evening. The family were being looked after yesterday by neighbours in their housing estate in Kilmeade, a small rural town on the N78 near Athy. Residents in the estate said they were first made aware of the incident when the Garda helicopter started circulating overhead at about 5.30am.
“It’s very quiet,” neighbour Anthony Sandham said of the neighbourhood. “What you see is what you get really. There’s just two or three small estates, a church and a school.”
Gardaí were yesterday carrying out door-to-door enquiries both in the estate and a neighbouring one, which backs onto the Lambe’s estate in which the attempted abduction took place.
Searches were also being undertaken in this area as it was thought the men may have fled through the neighbouring estate before making their getaway.
The incident is the third such foiled abduction to have occurred in the Kildare area in the past three weeks. On Good Friday, the postmistress of Prosperous, Co Kildare, her sister and her mother were held captive by four armed men in the postmistress’s house in Ballinafagh. However, the men abandoned their plan when they were unable to access any money due to security systems in place at the post office.
On April 4th, An Post manager Liam O’Sullivan, his wife Mary and their two children, were held by armed raiders in their home in Árd Na Gaoithe, Fennor, about five miles south of Kildare town, when at least four armed and masked men burst into the house.
Ms O’Sullivan, a sister of Fianna Fáil whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl, was held overnight but escaped the following morning. Mr O’Sullivan removed €100,000 as per the instructions of the gang who apparently abandoned the plan.
Mr Ó Fearghaíl said his sister and her family were recovering following their experience but said they had been shaken by the experience.
He said criminals were “using people as pawns” in these crimes, which were a “personal violation and a sort of desecration” of people’s own homes.
“These people are methodical, firstly in their identification of potential victims, and secondly in the manner in which they plan and execute these crimes,” he said, adding that adequate penalties needed to be put in place to deter such crimes.
Local Fianna Fáil county councillor Martin Miley jnr said the Garda reaction to yesterday’s events had been swift.
He called on the Minister for Justice to provide all necessary resources to prevent and prosecute such crimes.
Investigating gardaí are appealing to anyone with information or those travelling on the N78 between Kilcullen and Athy in the early hours of yesterday morning to contact them at Kildare Garda station on 045-527730.