A 68-year woman has told how she feared for her life when a revolver was held to her mouth during an armed raid on her sweet shop-cum-home in Cobh, Co Cork. Her 84-year-old husband was knocked to the ground and bound and gagged with heavy masking tape during the raid.
The attack on Mr Will Carr and his wife, Nonie, happened on Thursday night at their home in the Mall area of Cobh. Gardai described it as particularly vicious.
Two masked men burst into the shop shortly before 9 p.m. One grabbed Mrs Carr and the other went into the sitting room where her husband was watching television with the lights off.
The raider bound and gagged Mr Carr with heavy tape and tied his hands. "I said "For God's sake take my glasses off," said Mr Carr, but instead they were squashed into the side of his head. Afterwards he was pushed to the ground.
"The fellow who was doing me was big and strong and had a hunting knife with a jagged edge. It could cut your throat ... it was brand new. If we did not cough up, they would have used it."
Meanwhile, in the shop, Mrs Carr was being held at gunpoint. "I came out of the kitchen and this fellow grabbed me across the face and my glasses fell off. I asked him not to hurt me and he said he would not."
But the first time she screamed he attempted to choke her and the second time he "hit the gun against my mouth".
She feared for their lives. "It is the worst things that ever happened to me. It was 4.25 a.m. before I closed my eyes last night. It would take years off your life."
Mr Carr cut his eye while trying to take off the masking tape but both escaped serious injuries.
The attackers, both described as being over six feet and wearing dark clothing, got nothing in the raid. They were disturbed by a young couple attempting to enter the shop. They escaped through a back door, leaving the knife behind.
Supt Kieran McGann said it had been a vicious crime which had frightened two elderly and defenceless people. "We will be doing everything in our power to apprehend these people," he said.