The leader of a Dublin gang of armed robbers and kidnappers has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Paschal Kelly, 53, abducted and threatened to kill three women - a postmistress, her daughter and an Italian student - and robbed €92,000.
At Dublin District Criminal Court Judge Karen O'Connor said Kelly had "instilled considerable fear and terror" in the victims.
She also said it "fulfils the criteria for a so-called tiger kidnapping".
The judge paid a very special tribute to the three "remarkable" women who "aided the apprehension and displayed extraordinary dignity throughout the case".
The judge also said there is a co-accused before the court and directed that the victims' privacy be respected.
Kelly was one of a gang of three who broke into Susan Lawlor's home at Seabury Drive in Malahide in the early hours of 25 September 2014.
When the postmistress heard her daughter scream she managed to call a special An Post kidnapping hotline and put the phone under the bedclothes so those monitoring the call could listen.
The three women were tied up and driven to Bayside Post Office but Ms Lawlor left a forensic trail in the car for gardaí. She spat on the backseat and also plucked out a hair from her head and left it in the car, later saying "If I died, I wanted gardaí to know I'd been in the car".
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Kelly was the most aggressive of the gang. He beat the postmistress and threatened to shoot her and to burn all three women alive.
The victims described him as "terrifying" and showing no compassion.
At 8am on the morning of 25 September 2014 the timelock opened on the safe in the post office and Kelly and the other two gang members robbed €92,000 and left the women tied up in the building.
Armed gardaí stopped Kelly's car in Malahide a short time later and chased and caught another man, Stephen Murray, but Kelly got away.
Stephen Murray took his own life in 2016.
Kelly's DNA was found on a hat, face mask and glove he threw away while running, as well as on water bottles taken from the stolen car.
Kelly has 60 previous convictions for assaults, armed robberies, road traffic offences, escaping custody and threatening to kill a Criminal Assets Bureau officer.
He has already served a ten-year sentence for a previous post office robbery in 1997.
Judge Karen O'Connor said today that one could not imagine the terror the three women endured that night.
She sentenced the father of two to 18 years in prison.
Afterwards the officer in charge of the investigation commended the victims, not only for their courage during the kidnapping and robbery ordeal but also during the nine week trial.
Chief Superintendent Tony Howard also acknowledged the bravery of gardaí who intercepted the armed raiders.
He described the conviction of Paschal Kelly as "significant" and insisted gardaí would continue to target individuals involved in serious and organised crime.
