It wasn’t me: Ulverstone Lighthouse Hotel masked bandit makes last-ditch bid for freedom

The masked bandit who robbed a Tassie pub has made a last-ditch bid for his freedom, claiming police pegged the crime on the wrong man.

Wynyard armed robber Anthony Lee Donohue, 33. Picture: Facebook

THE masked bandit who robbed Ulverstone’s Lighthouse Hotel has made a last-ditch bid for his freedom, claiming police pegged the crime on the wrong man.

Anthony Lee Donohue was found guilty of armed robbery by a Supreme Court jury last year, and imprisoned for three years and nine months – with a non-parole period of half that time.

But Donohue, now 33, challenged both his conviction and sentence, saying an innocent man had been convicted.

In its newly-published judgment, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Donohue’s claims.

Justice Robert Pearce said at trial, there had been no doubt that in May 2021, a man wearing a balaclava, gloves and small backpack, armed with a “cylindrical metal object”, had held up the hotel and stolen away with about $8000 in cash.

The judge said the case had been “entirely circumstantial”, but that Donohue had been nabbed when his DNA was matched to a balaclava and sunglasses dumped in a nearby backyard.

Donohue was also linked to the case after he went to Penguin’s Neptune Hotel and exchanged at least $1000 in five, ten and twenty dollar bills for coins for the gaming machines.

However, Donohue claimed he’d brought along the money to the Neptune Hotel from a money jar he kept in his “man cave” at home.

Justice Pearce said regarding the entirety of evidence led by the Crown, he was “not left with any doubt” about Donohue’s guilt.

He said instead, Donohue’s claims were “entirely unconvincing”.

Justice Pearce also dismissed his appeal against sentence, describing the crime as “premeditated and planned”, and noting Donohue’s history of more than 50 convictions over dishonesty-related offences.

“The sentence could reasonably be described as lenient,” he said.

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