HOUSE OF TERROR: Armed men entered Tipperary home and threatened to kill pregnant woman

A family living in rural Tipperary was in fear for their lives when two armed men broke into their home and threatened to kill them, Clonmel Circuit Court was told.

The men, who were instructed to scare the occupants of a house and promised a €400 payment each, which would go towards paying off their drug debt, had been collected from a homeless hostel in Dublin and brought to a housing estate in Emly.

Leanne Campbell Kelly told how she feared for her life and the lives of her husband and the three children who were in the house when the frightening ordeal took place.

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The court was told that the men entered the house with knives and threatened to kill the five occupants.

Eight minutes later, the two men were dragged out of the house and brought away in the vehicle they came in and dumped outside the reception of Limerick University Hospital, one with life-threatening injuries and the other with serious injuries.

One occupant of the house, Liam Kelly, was brought to Tipperary University Hospital for treatment.

Judge Catherine Staines said the tragic and frightening circumstances of the case exposed the sordid underbelly of the drug world.

Judge Staines, imposing sentence on the two men, said the events of that night had a devastating impact on the five occupants of the house.

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Before the court were James Fitzgerald and Andrew Marlow, who were both residing at the Peter McVerry Trust hostel in New Cabra Road, Dublin 7.

They pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary on June 28 2024 at 85 Glencourt, Emly, county Tipperary.

Detective/Garda Kevin O’Keeffe told the court that shortly before 10pm on June 27, 2024, James Fitzgerald and Andrew Marlow were collected from their homeless accommodation in Dublin.

They were driven to Emly and on June 28 they smashed down the front door of 85 Glencourt and entered the house armed with knives.

They were violent and threatened to kill the people in the house, Liam Kelly, Leanne Campbell Kelly, a three-year-old, a sixteen-year-old son, and a 19-year-old nephew. There was a slash hook in the house.

Det Kevin O’ Keeffe said a 999 call was received from a distressed Leanne Campbell Kelly. In statements, both men said they were paid a sum of money to come down to Emly, break into a house, and threaten the occupants.

Both men made admissions when discharged from the hospital. Andrew Marlow had 79 previous convictions, and James Fitzgerald had 30 previous convictions.

A victim impact statement was read out by Leanne Campbell Kelly to the court.

She told Judge Staines that she and her family were not involved in any sort of criminality.

She said they would never forget the night that men broke into their home armed with knives.

Leanne said she was over eight months pregnant at the time of the incident, her three-year-old son, sixteen year sixteen-year-old son, and her nineteen-year-old nephew were in the house with her and her husband.

The three-year-old was seeing a psychiatrist because of what happened that night, and it broke her heart to see how it had affected him.

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Leanne said she thought they were all going to die, and the kids were screaming. She said the men had no morals; they heard them all scream, and they continued to come up the stairs and tried to get through the stair gate at the top of the stairs.

She said the men who broke into their house should not be allowed to do what they did that night to any other human beings.

A distressed Leanne Campbell Kelly said she gave birth early because of the stress she had experienced on the night of the break-in.

After she had the baby, she was put on antidepressants and suffered from anxiety.

She said the men had caused all of her family so much pain and stress. She hoped that all of them, with counselling, could move on from what happened that night.

“My husband is a hero; if he was not there, I do not know what would have happened,” she said.

She described the men as very dangerous and horrible people who had no humanity for anyone.

Ms Kathleen Leader SC, who was instructed by Donal Cronin, said James Fitzgerald was 52 years of age and his last previous conviction was in 2018.

He was a drug user and had a dependence on heroin for most of his adult life. He had accumulated a drug debt and was to be paid €400 for this, which would be taken off the debt he owed.

He turned out to be very much the loser in the incident as he suffered severe abdominal injuries, and he had been in custody since July 12, 2024.

Ms Leader said James Fitzgerald cooperated with the investigation and gave a full admission.
He was now drug-free. He very nearly lost his life on the night, and he had a partner of seven years .

He was in possession of a knife, and he spent two weeks in hospital after he had been dumped outside the door of the hospital that morning.

Dealing with Fitzgerald, Judge Staines said being a drug addict and homeless was not an excuse. It was an aggravated burglary and there was young children in the house. He did suffer serious injury, but he was the one who started all of this.

Judge Staines imposed a five-year sentence with the final two years suspended. It was to be backdated to when he went into custody on July 12, 2024.

Mr Colman Cody SC, who was instructed by Ed O’Mahony, told the court that Andrew Marlow had 79 previous convictions, which were recorded between 1990 and 2020.

All but six of those were recorded in the district court.

Mr Cody said Andrew Marlow had long-standing drug addiction issues. All of his offending was rooted in drug addiction, and he did not have a history of violence. Both he and Mr Fitzgerald were recruited to scare or threaten the occupants of the house.

He had a drug debt and was involved in the matter to work off some of that debt he owed.

He took some medication on his way down to Tipperary and he remembered being struck with a slash hook during the incident.

Andrew Marlow was injured in the incident and dumped outside the front of Limerick University Hospital that morning. He was 50 years of age and was originally from the inner city.

His life from the age of thirteen was one of addiction, incarceration and homelessness. He was acting on the direction of others on the night.

He had a daughter who died from a stillbirth, and he never came to terms with that. He apologised to everybody in the house for his behaviour on the night.

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Dealing with Andrew Marlow, Judge Staines said the incident had a devastating impact on the five occupants of the house.
Mr Marlow had an unfortunate upbringing.

He did receive injuries himself and had expressed remorse for what he had put the family through.

She imposed a sentence of five years’ imprisonment on Andrew Marlow, suspending the final two years of the sentence. It was to be backdated to July 5, 2024, to when Andrew Marlow was taken into custody.