Courts / Dublin / Report

Gratutiously violent offender gets nine-year sentence for string of attacks

Date
2020-02-21

Stage
Sentence

Primary locality
Dublin

County
Dublin

Summary

Jeffrey Crowley, aged 23, received a nine‑year and three‑month sentence, with the final 15 months suspended, for a series of violent offences. He pleaded guilty to crashing a stolen bicycle into 72‑year‑old English tourist Christine Booth at Smithfield Square on 2 August 2019, causing serious injuries, and to damaging a bike lock and stealing a phone on the same day. He also pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Jason Kidd at Merchants Quay on 24 October 2018, to stealing a phone at Queen Street on 24 July, and to damaging a phone at Georges Lane on 11 December 2016, during which he pushed a woman to the ground and kicked her. The judge noted the offences were a sequence of gratuitous violence and that Crowley had refused help from state bodies, including probation visits. He has 92 previous convictions and is currently serving a suspended sentence for a prior assault conviction.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Gratutiously violent offender gets nine-year sentence for string of attacks. Charges or matters: cycling into Christine Booth at Smithfield Square, Dublin on August 2 2019, causing a substantial risk of death or serious harm; damaging a bike lock and stealing a phone at Smithfield Square on the same date; assault causing harm to Jason Kidd at Merchants Quay on October 24, 2018; stealing a phone at Queen Street on July 24 this year and damaging a phone at Georges Lane on December 11, 2016, during which he pushed a woman to the ground and kicked her. Procedural stage: sentence

When:

August 2 2019 Other
October 24, 2018 Incident
July 24 Incident
December 11, 2016 Incident
2020-02-21 Publication

Case subjects

Jeffrey Crowley

Defendant

Charges: cycling into Christine Booth at Smithfield Square, Dublin on August 2 2019, causing a substantial risk of death or serious harm; damaging a bike lock and stealing a phone at Smithfield Square on the same date; assault causing harm to Jason Kidd at Merchants Quay on October 24, 2018; stealing a phone at Queen Street on July 24 this year and damaging a phone at Georges Lane on December 11, 2016, during which he pushed a woman to the ground and kicked her (Admitted)

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: Handing down a sentence of nine years and three months with the final 15 months suspended today, Judge Elma Sheahan noted it was "not an inconsiderable sentence". "But it would be an injustice to any of the individual injured parties to further reduce the sentence, which I believe reflects the totality of the offending," she said. She said the sentence "reflects what can only be described as a sequence of egregious individual acts," noting that many of Crowley's offences involved "gratuitous violence".