BANGOR – A federal judge Tuesday sentenced an Irishman who robbed a local bank 16 months ago at gunpoint to nearly 10 years in prison.

Niall Clarke, 27, an award-winning graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced him to 33 months in prison for the armed robbery on Oct. 4, 2006, of the Bank of America branch near the Bangor Mall. Woodcock sentenced Clarke to an additional seven years because he brandished a gun.

“There are a number of factors that make this crime particularly egregious,” the judge said. “The fact that he bought the gun the day before the robbery, loaded it and tested it is a chilling piece of evidence. It confirms that at least in his mind, he was willing to use it.”

The day of the robbery, Clarke bought a ski mask and stole a sweater and pants to facilitate the robbery and getaway, Woodcock said in recounting Clarke’s preparations.

“His actions were designed to terrorize,” the judge said. “He bought a ski mask to hide his identity and so the employees couldn’t see his facial expressions. He took the gun out and pointed it directly at the tellers. One said that the gun was six inches from her head. When the gun was retrieved by the police, it’s a chilling fact that there was a bullet in the chamber and four in the magazine.”

Clarke’s father and sister, Michael and Michelle Clarke, who sat directly behind the defendant, wept quietly as Woodcock imposed the sentence at the end of a four-hour hearing.

On the other side of the courtroom, the bank tellers who had looked down the barrel of the loaded gun hugged one another and cried.

A psychiatrist for the defense testified that Clarke suffered from schizophrenia and his family urged that he be sentenced to a facility where he could receive treatment for the illness. The prosecution countered that their psychologist had found that at the time of the robbery Clarke was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions and did not diagnose schizophrenia.

Dressed in a dark dress suit, blue shirt and striped tie, Clarke on Tuesday looked more like a bank executive than a convicted criminal. He briefly addressed the court before being sentenced.

“I’d like to apologize to the bank tellers. I’m very sorry,” he said.

The Irish man’s journey to federal prison began on St. Patrick’s Day 2006 when he met Robert O’Connell, the head of the licensing division of Maine’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles, at a Boston bar. Clarke had been living and working as a carpenter in Boston for several months, Woodcock said, but was drinking very heavily – 18 pints of Guiness per day.

Clarke, according to court documents told O’Connell he was in the country illegally and having trouble getting a driver’s license in Massachusetts. O’Connell expedited Clarke’s application for the Maine license and it was issued on April 12, 2006, after the Irishman passed a written and road test that day in Portland.

Although Clarke told O’Connell he was in the U.S. illegally, his visa did not expire until the end of April. O’Connell did not break any laws in helping Clarke, but the state Bureau of Personnel is conducting an investigation into the incident.

Clarke used the license as identification on Oct. 3, 2006, to buy a Versa 380 semiautomatic handgun from Maine Military Supply on Wilson Street in Brewer. He lied on the application and said he was a U.S. citizen. Clarke, who has never been married, told the salesman he was buying the gun for his wife for protection, according to court documents. He also was $30,000 in debt.

About 1:30 p.m. the next day, a masked Clarke entered the bank with the gun drawn, pointed it at tellers and demanded they fill a mesh bag with cash, Woodcock said at the sentencing. He shouted at bank employees and threatened the manager when she picked up a phone to alert police. Bank employees were clear-headed enough to give police the license plate number of the robber’s car.

Clarke apparently exited the bank parking lot onto Bangor Mall Boulevard, then turned left onto Hogan Road then right onto Stillwater Avenue. A Bangor police detective in the area in an unmarked car spotted Clarke and followed him to Kelly Road and onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 where at least half a dozen state police cruisers were waiting for him.

Additional troopers were at the Orono barracks when the robbery was reported and responded to an alert for help. After stopping and jumping out of his car, Clarke ran about 20 feet before he surrendered. The more than $11,000 he took from the bank was recovered.

Clarke was indicted by a federal grand jury a few weeks later for armed bank robbery, brandishing a firearm during the commission of a federal crime of violence, lying on an application to buy a gun and unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to those crimes on Jan. 2, 2007.

Under the federal sentencing guidelines, Clarke faced between 33 and 41 months in prison for the robbery. Because he used a weapon during a federal crime of violence, Clarke faced a mandatory minimum of seven additional years in prison.

Defense attorney Richard Hartley urged the judge to go outside the sentencing guidelines due the diagnosis that Clarke suffers from schizophrenia that has never been treated.

Todd Lowell, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, urged Woodcock to sentence Clarke to 44 months in addition to the seven years for using the gun.

Cheri Smith, a bank teller, told Woodcock that the robbery had taken away her sense of safety and independence.

“It’s hard to see him today,” she said. “I haven’t seen him since that day.”

Smith told the court whenever a person wearing a hooded jacket or sweat shirt or large sunglasses comes into the bank, she wonders for a split second if that person is another armed gunman.

“I think to myself, ‘Please don’t shoot me. I have kids at home. I just want to go home and be with them,'” she said.

Smith urged Woodcock to impose the maximum sentence.

An emotional Michael Clarke, 50, of Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, asked that his son serve his time in a facility where his schizophrenia could be treated. He also asked that, if possible, his son be able to serve some of his sentence in Ireland close to friends and family.

The elder Clarke also recounted his anguish at not being able to get his son treatment for his mental illness three years ago in Ireland.

“My mother was a paranoid schizophrenic,” Clarke said, his voice breaking with emotion. “My earliest memories are of watching the police come and force my screaming mother into a police car so they could take her to a mental hospital. As a kid, I learned to cope.

“When I saw Niall’s behavior, the hardest thing I’ve done as a father was to sign the form for his [involuntary] committal,” he continued. I didn’t do it easily. I begged for help for my son.”

Niall Clarke, however refused to be committed and because he was not a danger to himself or others, he could not be forced to seek treatment, his father said Tuesday.

In imposing sentence, Woodcock recommended that the bank robber be sent to a facility where he could receive treatment for his illness and alcohol abuse. He also recommended that if Clarke requests to spend the end of his sentence in Ireland, the request be granted.

After the hearing, Clarke leaned over the bar to hug his sister and father before being handcuffed and led back to jail.

He is expected to be held at the Cumberland County Jail for the next few weeks until the U.S. Bureau of Prisons determines in which federal prison he will begin serving his sentence.

The year he has spent in jail since pleading guilty will be credited to his sentence.

His sentence is expected to be appealed by the defense to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

After the sentencing, the Clarke family solicitor, Eugene O’Kelly of Kilrush, Ireland, spoke to the media outside the federal building in Bangor.

“Niall’s parents, Mike and Mary Clarke [who did not attend the hearing], are very relieved that the sentence has been finalized,” he said. “They’re very grateful to friends and strangers alike who have supported them during this ordeal. Over the past year, they’ve been trying to come to terms with what has happen, but it’s been as if they were on some horror ride.

“What makes this so sad is that it could have been prevented,” O’Kelly continued. “In a few short years, Niall’s gone from college to criminal, from prodigy to prison.”

O’Kelly said that the software company Clarke founded while a senior in college was recently sold for an undisclosed amount that probably would have made the computer whiz a very wealthy man.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

990-8207

Extended corrections:

Published correction on 2/21/2008

A story on page A1 of Tuesday’s paper about the sentencing of an Irish man for armed bank robbery contained a typographical error. Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Lowell recommended Niall Clarke, 27, serve 44 months for the robbery in addition to the mandatory minimum sentence of seven years for brandishing a gun.

Published correction on 2/22/2008

A story about the sentencing of an Irishman for armed bank robbery that ran on Page 1 in Wednesday’s paper and the correction that ran in Thursday’s paper contained the same typographical error. The federal prosecutor recommended Niall Clarke, 27, be sentenced to 41 months in prison.