Thugs who robbed Pat must be caught

Pat Gillespie, the 100-year-old robbed in his Strabane home at the weekend, summed up his attackers perfectly in one word — “scum”.

The three burly thieves stole £500 from the pensioner in what he described as a very frightening experience, and also removed his personal alarm before fleeing.

This was a cowardly and dangerous crime.

There was no way the thieves could have known how the elderly man would react in those circumstances. The shock alone could easily have killed a less sprightly man of his age.

Had he become unwell in the wake of the ordeal he would have been unable to contact the emergency services without his personal alarm

Perhaps, most chilling of all, is his belief that the thieves knew a lot about him — when he would be at home, and alone, and that he had money in the house. This suggests an element of pre-planning and surveillance.

Ultimately, all the thieves got was a relatively small amount of money. Of course, it is a substantial amount to Mr Gillespie, but not enough for anyone to put his life in jeopardy.

Despite his ordeal Mr Gillespie demonstrated that he is a doughty customer who refuses to live in fear or remain behind closed doors.

An accomplished powerboat racer in his younger days, he now gets around by bicycle and was out and about in Strabane yesterday as testament to his resilience.

Mr Gillespie, like Peadar Heffron — the Catholic PSNI officer seriously injured by a dissident IRA under-car bomb seven years ago — featured on the front pages of this newspaper yesterday.

They, unlike the robbers in Strabane or the evil wouldbe killers, are typical of the vast majority of people in this province.

They refuse to be cowed, and they have lived lives hoping to make a difference and to make Northern Ireland a better place to live.

Mr Gillespie organised many carnivals in and around his home town and also raised funds for the Children in Need charity. He now wants society to demonstrate that it cares for and will support elderly people like himself.

One way that can be shown is by passing on to the PSNI any information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of those who robbed him. They deserve to be faced with the full rigour of the law and locked up where they belong for a substantial period.