This article is from page 4 of the 2008-01-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A KILRUSH man who has admitted robbing a US bank at gunpoint is to be sentenced next month.
Niall Clarke, 27, who is originally from the Killimor Road in Kilrush, was arrested in Bangor, Maine, in October 2006, shortly after robbing a Bank of America branch, near the Bangor Mall.
He had more than $11,000 in a black mesh bag and a loaded .38-cal- iber handgun and box of ammunition with him.
He pleaded guilty in January to charges stemming from the robbery.
After his Bangor attorney, Richard Hartley, had Clarke evaluated by a psychiatrist, he sought to withdraw his client’s guilty plea and enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Hartley has said that Clarke suffers from a severe mental illness. Clarke also was evaluated during the sum- mer at a federal facility by a govern- ment psychiatrist.
Clarke also had an assessment car- ried out by a psychiatrist, who was employed by his family. It concluded that “Niall was suffering from an ill- ness that rendered Niall unable at the time of the crime to appreciate the nature and quality of the wrongful-
ness of the act.”
In November, Clarke’s attorney agreed to schedule a sentencing date rather than to continue trying to withdraw Niall Clarke’s guilty plea, as had been indicated earlier.
Clarke faces up to 25 years in fed- eral prison on the armed robbery charge and a mandatory minimum of a consecutive seven years for using a gun during the robbery.
Under the federal sentencing guide- lines, the recommended sentence for the robbery is between 33 and 41 months. The seven-year mandatory sentence would be added to that sen- tence.
The sentencing date of February 19 next was fixed last week. The sen- tencing hearing will take place in Bangor, Maine.
Clarke was an award-winning stu- dent while studying Computer Sci- ence at Trinity College, Dublin and won a top Enterprise Ireland Student Award in 2002.
As a result of his Junior Certificate results at St Joseph’s Spanish Point, he was invited to join the Irish Math- ematics Olympic team.
As a result of his Leaving Certifi- cate, he was awarded a scholarship by Trinity College to study math- sere ee