HEROIN ADDICT ROBBED MALLOW SHOP WITH KNIFE

BALLYDAHEEN SPAR SHOP ASSISTANT LEFT TERRIFIED BUT COULD IDENTIFY ROBBER BY HOODY AND TATTOOS ON HAND

A NORTH Cork shop assistant was terrified by a lone raider who threatened her at knife point when he held up the shop where she was working and stole over €500, a court heard this week.

The woman was in the Spar Shop in Ballydaheen in Mallow on her own as her work colleague was on a break when heroin addict, Zach Maloney, produced a kitchen knife and demanded that she hand over the cash from the till.

Maloney (49), a native of Cork city but living at Lower Bearforest, Mallow, pleaded guilty this week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of €505 from the Spar Shop at Ballydaheen on January 5, 2020.

Maloney also pleaded guilty to a second charge of producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate another person in the course of committing the robbery at the Spar Shop in Ballydaheen.

Garda Denis Howard of Mallow Garda Station told the court that the robbery was carried out at 6.30pm on the day in question, a Sunday, when a man entered the shop in Ballydaheen.

The woman observed the man, who was wearing a hoodie with the hood up over his head and a scarf across his face. and as he approached her at the till, he produced a small kitchen knife and demanded cash from the till.

“He pointed a knife at the cashier and he demanded she opened the till – he shouted at her ‘Open the till and give me the money, I’m not joking, open the till and give me the money’,” said Garda Howard.

“The woman started taking notes from the till and he told her to help him take the notes from the till and she did so in fear and then he ordered her not to press the panic button,” he added.

The raider fled the shop and was seen running in the direction of Mallow Bridge as the woman raised the alarm. Gardaí were quickly on the scene and the woman was able to give a description of the raider.

The woman told gardaí that the raider was wearing a navy and orange Everlast hoodie and Maloney was seen coming from a waste water area near the shop and when gardaí searched it, they found the hoodie.

The woman also noticed that the raider had some ink tattoos on his hands and she was able to describe them to gardaí who went to Maloney’s home at Bearforest where they found the knife he had used in the robbery.

Gardai arrested Maloney for questioning and he cooperated with the garda investigation, admitting that he left his house with the intention of robbing the shop as he needed money to buy heroin.

Maloney’s barrister, John Devlin BL told the court that his client was a heroin addict who had been on a methadone programme but he relapsed into using heroin after getting into a row at his local pharmacist a couple of weeks earlier.

The result of this row was that Maloney was unable to get his methadone from the pharmacist as part of his treatment programme and he was unable to get his methadone prescription transferred to another pharmacist over Christmas.

He instead reverted to taking heroin and it was in order to get money to buy heroin that he decided to rob the shop, said Mr Devlin BL, adding that his client had written a letter of apology to his victim for his actions.

Garda Howard told the court that the Spar shop assistant did not want to make a Victim Impact Statement on the matter. “She did not want to relive the incident as it was too traumatic,” he said.

Maloney, who is originally from Togher on Cork’s southside and well known to gardaí, had 89 previous convictions, including 16 for robbery and three more for attempted robbery, the court heard.

Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin noted that none of the stolen money was recovered and he noted the pharmacist referred to by the defence would not deal with the defendant because “he robbed the chemist shop before Christmas”.

He imposed a four year sentence on Maloney, saying that his record of previous convictions was appalling but that he faced a continuing life of crime and jail if he did not address his heroin addiction.

“His previous history is appalling – 16 previous for robbery alone and in many of those, weapons were used, often weapons more dangerous than knives. He is hopelessly addicted to heroin. He is going to keep on offending unless something is done.”