Noel Ryan jailed for seven years for hijacking car with baby

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

Noel Ryan was sentenced to seven years in prison for hijacking a car with a baby inside at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 4 April 2025. He pleaded guilty to hijacking a vehicle and abducting a child at Mountjoy Square, Dublin, on 23 September 2024.

Judge Martin Nolan set a headline sentence of nine and a half years, then imposed seven years after considering the early guilty plea as mitigation. The sentence was backdated to when Ryan went into custody in the case.

The court heard that Ryan drove off while the child’s mother held onto the car door, and that the baby was found alone in the vehicle about three hours later. The judge described Ryan as reckless in regard to the child and said he probably did not know there was a child in the car.