THREE MEN who robbed an elderly woman at knifepoint in a remote farmhouse near Tuam earlier this year were jailed yesterday, one for seven years and two for six years , with the final two years suspended in each case.
Leandra Maitins Lima (23), Brackloon, Ballyglunin, Tuam, a Brazilian, was sentenced to seven years in prison, with the final two years suspended, for being the “main brains” behind the robbery of €500 from an elderly couple on whose farm he had worked for a short period last year.
Lima, along with Portuguese national Miguel Carvelho da Silva (22), also Brackloon, and Roberto José des Neves (28), a Brazilian, Ballygaddy Road, Tuam, pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court to the theft of €500 from a woman in her home at Brackloon on February 24th.
Da Silva was unlawfully at large from prison at the time of the robbery, having received an eight-month sentence at Ennis District Court in April 2008 for burglary and a 3½-year sentence for two serious assaults at Galway Circuit Court in November 2008.
He and de Neves were each sentenced to six years in prison, with the final two years suspended.
Det Sgt Michael O’Driscoll said Lima admitted wielding a large kitchen knife when he knocked at the back door of the isolated farmhouse, which was situated 300 yards in from the Tuam/Roscommon road, at 6.30pm and demanded money from the woman, who had opened the door to him.
He covered her mouth to stop her screaming and walked with her to the television room, where she handed over €500 which had been her husband’s birthday money.
Det Sgt O’Driscoll said the woman (64) and her husband (70) had just returned from hospital, where he had been undergoing tests for cancer. He was in bed at the time of the robbery.
Lima told gardaí he planned the robbery with the others because he wanted money to go home to Brazil.
Det Sgt O’Driscoll read a victim impact statement written by the woman last weekend.
In it she stated her life had been turned upside down and she was now afraid to go outside her door, even to do the shopping or hang out clothes on the line. She was afraid when the phone or the doorbell rang and every time she heard the dog bark, she thought they were going to be robbed again.
Judge Raymond Groarke said Lima’s treachery marked him out from the others in that he knew the couple, who had been good to him by giving him work last year. He had also lived just a half a mile away from them and knew they were easy targets.
Judge Groarke said the woman was now a hermit in her own home and this had been an utterly savage robbery. “He [Lima] knew this couple and this was a well-planned and premeditated crime.”
Judge Groarke directed that Da Silva serve his sentence consecutively to the sentences he was currently serving.