'Tiger kidnapper' and gangland criminal Paschal Kelly has opened an appeal against his conviction and 18-year sentence for a €92,000 post office robbery, during which three women were tied up and abducted.
56-year-old Kelly of Cootehill, Co Cavan, and Castlepollard, Co Westmeath was one of a gang of three men who burst into the home of postmistress Susan Lawlor at Seabury Drive, Malahide, Dublin on September 25, 2014.
Paschal Kelly was also convicted of robbery, threatening to kill the three women and possession of a stolen vehicle on the same date. The gang used cable ties to bind Ms Lawlor, her daughter and an Italian student who was staying at the home.
The women were brought to a field where they were held overnight before the gang drove them to the Bayside Post Office in Sutton, Dublin. At one stage Kelly threatened to burn them alive in a car by pouring petrol over it. The raiders eventually left with the cash.
The father-of-two had denied all charges. The trial also heard that Kelly's 60 previous convictions included assaults, escaping lawful custody, robbery and road traffic offences.
In March 2015 he was sentenced for threatening to kill a CAB officer and failure to provide tax returns. Meanwhile, the appeal, before presiding judge Mr Justice John Edwards, sitting with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, was subsequently adjourned to December 19, when Counsel for the State Roisin Lacey SC will reply to the submissions.]
