Judge praises hero pensioner
Published: October 14, 2004
She has never wrestled a criminal to the ground - or anyone for that matter. She raised three children and has walked a substantial length of the path of Life. I’m only now starting to see what stamina that walk takes.
Today I will tell my mother she’s my hero.
A Belfast judge today praised a have-a-go-hero pensioner who wrestled an armed robber to the ground.
Crown Court Judge Norman Lockie praised the 70-year-old as he jailed 28-year-old former soldier Richard David McCarten for 11 years after he agreed to spend a further year on probation after his release.
Judge Lockie said the former rugby playing pensioner “deserves the highest praise” and added that while he was sure the hero`s family were “very proud”, he was also sure that pride would be “tinged with relief” as his heroic stance may have gone wrong.
McCarten, from Wilgar Close in Belfast pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery, assault and possession of the firearm all on October 23 last year.
Earlier the judge had heard that the plucky pensioner managed to hold McCarten in a headlock despite his loaded pistol going off.
Prosecution lawyer Peter Magill told the court that a Securicor guard was delivering a cash box to a bank on the Belmont Road in east Belfast when McCarten demanded “give me the f****** box” and pointed the modified pistol at him.
He said that as McCarten left he turned to face the guard and again threatened him with the gun but added that as he went to walk away, the pensioner grabbed him in a headlock with McCarten declaring “I`ll shoot you, I`ll shoot you,” and pointing the gun at his chest.
The lawyer said that as the pair struggled a shot was fired into the air and they crashed into a parked car in what he described as an “obviously traumatic, violent and frightening experience”.
Mr Magill revealed that a father and son saw the pensioner`s “extremely courageous intervention” and went to help him with one wrestling the gun from McCarten`s grasp while the other, assisted by a local shopkeeper held the would-be robber until police arrived at the scene.
He said that during the course of the struggle, the pensioner did receive injuries to his nose and eye as well as severe bruising to his left leg and side.
The lawyer told the court that after McCarten had been arrested and was waiting interview, he made the comment “I was going to decommission it [the gun] - I found it in the alleyway”.
Defence QC Terence McDonald said McCarten had taken the gun with him to give people the impression “that he was a very serious man” whereas a “not so young member of the community was able to wrestle him and hold him”, adding that his plan had been “amateurishly executed”.
Sending the former Royal Irish Regiment soldier to jail, Judge Lockie said the pensioner had shown “great courage and determination” as he could not have known that McCarten was carrying a real gun.
In what he described as a “premeditated plan” to steal a “substantial sum of money”, the judge said the fact that a shot had been fired “demonstrates the lengths he was prepared to go to”.
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