Man jailed after policeman robbed at knife point

Gerard Magee, whose address was given as HMP Maghaberry, admitted his role in a burglary at the Obel Tower, and of robbing an occupant of his wallet which contained £200.

Belfast Crown Court heard the victim was a visiting policeman who, along with colleagues, was being trained by the PSNI.

Judge Kevin Finnegan handed Magee a four-and-a-half year sentence, which was divided equally between prison and licence, and told him: “You must accept your behaviour, to put it mildly, was out of order.”

Before he passed sentence, Judge Kevin Finnegan heard the victim and other policemen from Oman were staying on the third floor of the Obel Tower, and that around 1am on September 19, 2017 one of the visitors was woken by two men in his bedroom.

Prosecuting barrister Robin Steer said the policeman was threatened with a knife and was asked “where is your money?”. He handed the intruders his wallet containing cash, and was then asked “where is the other money?”

Whilst this was occurring, another policeman in the same apartment was able to raise the alarm with colleagues who were also staying in Obel, which prompted the intruders to flee.

When the area was searched, a bloodstained knife bearing Magee’s DNA was located in a laneway beside the Obel building. CCTV footage from in and around the premises was also viewed, which showed two men in the building trying apartment doors.

The footage also showed the same two men leaving the building, walking along the laneway where the knife was later found, and walking to Fianna House in the Divis area.

Whilst Magee was subsequently identified by the victim, the other intruder remains at large.

After his arrest later that month, Magee initially denied being in Belfast on the night of the incident and denied he was one of the two men on CCTV.

Mr Steer spoke of the seriousness of the offence and said Magee “had just been released from prison a matter of days when he committed these offences.

The prosecutor also said that despite initial denials, Magee’s pleas to burglary and robbery saved live links with the Embassy in Oman which would have been necessary had their been a trial.

Greg Berry QC, defending Magee, said his client “has spent most of his adult life in custody, since 2003 he had hardly been out, and when he gets out he re-offends.”

Pointing out that while there were threats there was no violence from Magee, Mr Berry revealed the knife used belonged to the apartment and was not brought to the scene, which he said indicated “a lack of pre-meditation.”

Branding the incident as “opportunistic and unsophisticated”, Mr Berry said that at the time Magee was “grossly intoxicated.” The barrister also accepted that the incident “must have been terrifying for people not from this country.”

Sentencing Magee, Judge Kevin Finnegan told Magee he played a “central role” in the incident and said: “You must accept your behaviour, to put it mildly, was out of order.”