CHARLIE CHAWKE SHOOTER IS FREED Gunman released after 15-year jail term
Aftermath of 2003 shooting THE armed robber convicted of shooting millionaire publican Charlie Chawke has been released from prison.
Frank Ward was handed a 20-year sentence for the gun attack in October 2003 in which his victim lost a leg.
Ward, who is in his 60s, had launched the attack with another man at the Goat Grill in Goatstown, Dublin.
Mr Chawke tried to seize the weapon as the robber approached and was shot.
Dad-of-three Ward, from Knockmore Avenue, Tallaght, South Dublin, was given two life sentences of intentionally causing serious harm to the businessman and the robbery of €48,652.
In 2012, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the life terms and replaced them with 20-year jail terms on each count to run concurrently from October 2003.
A source said: “Ward is a free man. He was released from Portlaoise Prison on Sunday.
DANGEROUS
“He served 15 years, as he was granted remission on his sentence. He was one of Ireland’s most dangerous armed robbers and was a notorious violent criminal.
“He is a well-known eccentric and has spent a large amount of time taking spurious cases against his detention.”
It is understood Ward has returned to Dublin where he will live – gardai have been informed of this and patrols have been asked to watch out for him.
During his detention, Ward made several applications to have him freed from custody.
Ward, who wore a cowboy-style face mask to court, took a ridiculous case claiming his detention in Portlaoise was wrong.
Earlier this year he claimed he was illegally detained in an “alien” Co Laois, where the people are “GAA supporters to a child”. Since 2010, he was incarcerated in the Midlands Prison where he alleged his rights were breached.
Ward said he was being held in “internal exile” in a county “culturally foreign and alien” outside the geographical jurisdiction of the original sentencing court in Dublin. He claimed this was a “monumental culture shock” to him.
Mr Justice David Barniville said the case was “spurious” and “unmeritorious”.
The judge added there was “nothing unfair” or contrary to Ward’s fundamental rights in an order transferring him from Mountjoy Prison to the Midlands Prison.
He also dismissed complaints on distance from family as there were excellent road and rail links between Dublin and Portlaoise.
Mr Chawke declined to comment on the release when contacted by the Irish Mirror yesterday.