Thugs who raided home at gunpoint get 16 years
Pair robbed restaurant owner as terrified daughter hid upstairs
TWO thugs who robbed a businessman at gunpoint in his home while his terrified teenage daughter hid upstairs were yesterday jailed for a total of 16 years.
Darren Rooney, 29, and Jamie Shaw, 39, barged into 49-year- old Gordon Craig’s home in the Ayrshire seaside town of Largs and threatened the restaurant chain owner before tying him up and escaping with £30,000 in cash and a Rolex watch.
At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Judge Bill Dunlop, QC, sentenced Rooney and Shaw to eight years in prison each.
He also ordered Rooney to be monitored in the community for four years after his release, to protect the public. The men were both convicted of the uniquely Scottish crime of hamesucken on August 24 last year.
Hamesucken is the offence of violently attacking and robbing someone in their home and at one time carried the death penalty.
Judge Dunlop complimented Police Scotland on ‘fine police work’ before telling the pair: ‘ This sort of behaviour has l ong been recognised as one of the most serious crimes in the law of Scotland.
‘ You violated the sanctity of a private home and terrorised the occupants.
‘You used a firearm or imitation firearm and made threats of serious violence to Mr Craig.’
The court was told earlier that Rooney claimed he would not have carried out the raid if he had known Mr Craig’s daughter was at home.
Judge Dunlop described this as ‘brazen impertinence’ adding: ‘If this were not so serious i t would be laughable. You can’t seriously ask me to give you credit for that.
‘By going to trial you forced her to relive that whole dreadful experience. You put her through that hell again.’
The court heard that detectives traced Rooney and Shaw after CCTV images from a neighbouring house showed them reconnoitring the house days before the raid.
The robbery took place around 10pm when Mr Craig was at home with his 18-year-old daughter, Candy.
Miss Craig said she had been in her bedroom when she was awoken by her dog barking.
She said: ‘I heard my dad scream and yell, “Get out the house”. Initially I thought I must be dreaming.’
The court heard Shaw and Rooney wore ski masks and had a firearm when they stormed into the house.
Miss Craig remembered one shouting he was going to ‘ blow the dog’s head off ’ if it did not stop barking.
As the teenager cowered in her room, she heard her father being
‘I heard my dad scream and yell’
‘My heart was pounding’
asked how much money was in the house.
Miss Craig wept as she told the jury: ‘My heart was pounding... I did not know what to do.’
She had even been too frightened to call the police in case the raiders heard her, she said.
After the robbers fled, Mr Craig shouted for his daughter. She helped free her father before the police were eventually alerted.
In early October 2014 police raided Shaw’s home in Shawlands, Glasgow, and found large bundles of cash – totalling almost £ 6,000 – hidden around the flat.
This included £3,000 stuffed inside a cereal packet. They also found a box for a gun in a cupboard. Inside a vehicle was a card from one of Mr Craig’s Tinto Tapas restaurants.
It emerged Shaw often ate at one of the restaurants and that Mr Craig would sometimes give him a drink ‘on the house’.
Mr Craig had also told police that one of the robbers had a ‘distinctive’ walk, similar to that of Shaw.
Both men had previous High Court convictions. Shaw was jailed for four years in 2005 for a drugs offence, while Rooney was locked up for five years in 2010 after being caught with a gun.
Solicitor advocate Maurice Smyth, representing Rooney, of Castlemilk, Glasgow, said he had been employed in the property business but had financial problems after being made redundant.
Mr Smyth added: ‘He had no intention to injure anyone. This incident was pathetic and amateurish.
‘He was upset the victim’s daughter was at home. He said he would not have participated in the robbery if he had known this.’