CAUGHT RAPID | 

Knife-raider handed himself into gardaí after damning CCTV footage played on RTÉ

Trevor Doyle wore a balaclava during a raid on O’Donovan’s off-licence on January 11, detectives tracked his every step for the following hour and 20 minutes — capturing clear images of his face after he dumped the balaclava and knife.

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This is the damning CCTV footage that forced a knife-wielding robber to hand himself into gardaí.

Although 30-year-old Corkman Trevor Doyle wore a balaclava during a raid on O’Donovan’s off-licence in Cork city on January 11, detectives tracked his every step for the following hour and 20 minutes — capturing clear images of his face after he dumped the balaclava and knife.

The footage was subsequently broadcast on RTE’s Crimecall on February 27, leading to a number of calls from members of the public to gardaí nominating Doyle as a suspect.

And, having watched the programme himself and being left in no doubt but that the hammer was about to come down on him, Doyle himself rang gardaí confessing to the robbery.

The incredible job officers did in collating the footage was apparent in the programme broadcast in February.

In it, Doyle was first captured wearing a black jacket standing on Thomas Davis Street just before 5.20pm.

Doyle was recorded loitering on the street for several minutes before he pulled the balaclava down over his face and walking into O’Donovan’s off-licence.

Armed with a knife, he was recorded warning the single staff member in the store: “Open it or I’ll use it,” showing the knife as he said this.

Doyle was then seen leaving the shop and walking through an underpass towards the car-park of Blackpool shopping centre.

After he walked through the underpass, he was seen on CCTV discarding the balaclava where it was later recovered by gardai.

A few minutes later, he came to an alleyway leading to Blackpool retail park where he removed his jacket and put it in a bin.

Gardaí observed, on the CCTV, that Doyle was then wearing a distinctive black and white hoodie with grey sleeves.

At 5.55pm, Doyle was recorded boarding the 203 bus from Brothers Delaney Road towards the city centre.

After a short journey, he got off the bus at Patrick Street and entered another shop where the clearest images of his face were recorded.

He then returned to the bus stop on Patrick Street where he stayed for several minutes.

He then walked north over the River Lee on to Bridge Street and along McCurtain Street.

Doyle was last recorded on CCTV on Mary Adams Bridge near Cork Bus station at approximately 6.40pm.

In evidence before Cork Circuit Court earlier this week, Detective Sergeant Kieran O’Sullivan said it was because of a difficulty identifying the raider that a decision was made to broadcast CCTV of the crime.

“He was not known so the CCTV was run on Crimecall on February 27 this year,” he said.

The court heard Doyle of Red Forge Road, Blackpool, Cork, had 24 previous convictions, including four circuit court convictions.

One of them was for a robbery dating back to November 2015.

Judge McCourt imposed a sentence of two years and six months with the last six months suspended.