Dylan Collins gets suspended sentence for criminal damage

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Dylan Collins received a suspended two-and-a-half-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 18 January 2018. He had previously pleaded guilty to criminal damage to a marked Hyundai Garda car. The proceedings were reported on 18 January 2018.

The offence occurred at Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght, on 15 November 2014, during a water charges protest. Collins admitted throwing a rock through the car’s rear window. The court heard that he told Gardaí on arrest he had thrown it because everyone else was doing so, but accepted that his actions were “not on”.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Collins was remorseful and said it would be unfair to jail him. He said the missile had been thrown from 20 metres away at the moving car and could have injured the Gardaí inside. Gardaí accepted that Collins had never intended to hurt anyone.

Former community policeman Garda Darren Rooney agreed with defence counsel Michael O’Higgins SC that Collins was “a decent lad” who had allowed himself to be carried away in the heat of the protest.