'Mr Fishy' terrorised family during home invasion while out on bail for providing getaway cars in attempted murder, court hears

Patrick Fitzgerald, a 48-year-old man from Glenties in County Donegal, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to facilitating a criminal organisation between November 11 and 18, 2021. The court heard that Fitzgerald, known as "Mr Fishy", purchased two vehicles through an online platform and provided them as getaway cars following an attempted murder in Dublin on November 17, 2021. The victim, Gary Carey, was shot ten times and sustained serious gunshot wounds to his torso but survived the initial attack. Carey subsequently died from injuries sustained in a second attack in August 2022. Fitzgerald was arrested in December 2021 and exercised his right to silence during police interviews. The court noted he has 72 previous convictions. While on bail awaiting trial for an aggravated burglary charge, Fitzgerald participated in a violent home invasion in Monkstown, Dublin, in August 2023. During that incident, four men forced their way into a family home, restraining a man in his seventies with cable ties and removing his wife, daughter, and six-year-old grandchild from their beds. The homeowner was struck on the head with a metal bar, requiring thirteen stitches, and his daughter was dragged by her hair when she attempted to escape. In February 2025, Fitzgerald was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for the aggravated burglary and false imprisonment. Following his guilty plea to the facilitating charges in May 2025, he was remanded in custody pending sentencing. At the Central Criminal Court hearing on July 7, 2025, Justice Eileen Creedon imposed a consecutive seven-year sentence, bringing his total custodial term to fifteen and a half years. Victim impact statements detailed the family's ongoing trauma and loss of sense of safety resulting from the shooting incident.