Family held hostage during raid on hotel

INTENSIVE inquiries are under way into an armed robbery in which a Co Tipperary hotel manager and his family were held captive in their home for more than two hours early yesterday morning.

A substantial amount of money was taken in the raid at the Hayes Hotel in Liberty Square, Thurles, where the GAA was founded over 100 years ago.

Four armed and masked men were involved in the raid in which the hotel manager, Mr Gerry McGovern, and his wife were held at gunpoint at their home, about six miles from the town, while the hotel safe was robbed. Their two children slept throughout the incident. Detectives said the couple "had quite an ordeal" and were very shocked.

The raiders are believed to be in their 20s and carried a sawn off shotgun and a handgun.

The investigation is at a "very, very early stage and an awful lot of lines of inquiry have to be followed yet" according to a Garda source involved in the follow up operation. He said the raid appeared to have been well planned.

The men broke into the house at Ballydavid, Littleton, through the front window of the sitting room at about 2.15 am.

They ran upstairs where Mrs McGovern and her two young children, both boys, were asleep. The children slept through the robbery.

Mrs McGovern was woken up, brought downstairs and held at gunpoint in the sitting room for an hour until Mr McGovern returned from work.

When he warned through the front door of the house at least two of the raiders grappled with him. He was forced to hand over the keys to his office and the hotel safe. Hem and his wife were held hostage in the sitting room by one of the masked gang, while the other three drove to the hotel.

The raiders then forced entry into the hotel through a third floor rear door. They tied up the porter, opened the hotel safe and took an undisclosed but substantial amount of money. It is believed to have included takings from over the New Year's Eve weekend.

The robbers were interrupted when a taxi driver rang the hotel door bell. Meanwhile, a member of staff who was in the hotel at the time raised the alarm.

He left the hotel and phoned the Garda. The gang left the rest of the money in the safe and made their way back to the McGovern home, where they collected the fourth member at about 4.45 a.m.

Before making off in Mr McGovern's white Opel Kadett car, registration number 90 TN 11 30, the gang also took some of Mrs McGovern's jewellry. Last night the car had not been found.