Lee Byrne sentenced for burglary, attempted robbery and criminal damage

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

Judge Melanie Greally sentenced Lee Byrne to four and a half years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 30 October 2019, suspending the final 12 months. The sentence ran consecutively to an 18-month term she had imposed in June 2019 for criminal damage to vehicles, making six years in total with the final 12 months suspended.

Byrne pleaded guilty to burglary and theft, assault causing harm and false imprisonment of a woman, as well as criminal damage to vehicles and attempted robbery. The proceedings were reported on 30 October 2019.

The offences at the 67-year-old woman’s home in Drumcondra took place on 9 October 2018. The criminal damage occurred on St Margaret’s Road in Finglas on 1 April 2018, and the attempted robbery at a Spar on Upper O’Connell Street on 9 September 2018.

The court heard that Byrne pushed the woman, grabbed her jacket and brought her downstairs while demanding money. He left with a laptop and her bank cards. Garda Shane Darcy said she believed she was going to die because of Byrne’s aggression; he agreed with defence counsel Rebecca Smith that Byrne was suffering from drug addiction at the time.

Garda Louise Moran said Byrne and an accomplice tried to rob the Spar: the accomplice threatened staff with a knife while Byrne threw chocolate and chewing gum at them. The pair fled without cash. Byrne apologised in a garda interview and said he had been on drugs and pills; he accepted that staff would have been terrified.

Judge Greally took Byrne’s youth, extreme addiction and genuine remorse into account when suspending part of the later sentence. She regarded the burglary as the more serious offence because it violated the woman’s home and Byrne had been violent towards her.