A MIDDLE-aged Cork man who denied leaping on the counter of a jewellers and robbing €6,000 worth of rings was convicted of the crime by the unanimous decision of a jury.

It only took half an hour for the jury of 11 men and one woman to reach their verdict that Philip Murphy was guilty of carrying out the robbery on Friday, August 14, 2020, at Mona’s Antiques, Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin remanded Murphy in custody for sentencing on September 20 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Only after they had reached their decision were the jury told by the judge that the same man — Philip Murphy of 58 Killala Gardens, Knockhaneeny, Cork — faced sentencing for another crime on September 20.

In that case, Murphy also denied the offence of burgling the African Missions property on Blackrock Road in Cork on an afternoon in July 2020 and later getting on to the 202 bus into town.

Similarly, the jury in that case only took half an hour to reach a unanimous verdict that Murphy was guilty.

Evidence was given in the latest case by Catherine Buckley, the woman who was working behind the counter of the jewellers when Murphy raided.

“He was up on top of the counter before I could think. I was pressing the panic button. I felt something – I don’t know what it was and I ended up lying on my back. I was dazed for a few seconds,” Ms Buckley said.

Twice during the robbery Ms Buckley managed to push the raider back — on one occasion managing to get him off the counter.

Ms Buckley did not identify the raider who had a face mask and a distinctively patterned ‘paddy hat’.

A short time before the robbery, Detective Garda Cormac Crotty was on duty in Cork city centre in relation to another matter when he spotted and identified Philip Murphy who was known to him.

He made a note of seeing him and also made a note of the unusual hat which he described in his garda notebook.

In the SMA burglary witnesses saw a stranger, aged around 50, wearing a pants, jacket and peaked cap on the grounds and entering and exiting buildings belonging to the African Missions.