Teenager sentenced for two Dublin robberies

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

An unnamed 17-year-old received three and a half years in prison, with the final 18 months suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Martin Nolan required good behaviour throughout the whole sentence and compliance with Probation Services on release.

He pleaded guilty to two robberies and admitted resisting arrest at the scene of one. He was 15 when the robberies occurred and was under a peace bond. The proceedings were reported on 24 July 2015.

Garda Michael McCarthy told Eilis Brennan BL, prosecuting, that the youths followed a stroke survivor travelling on Dublin Buses on 8 April 2014. The report said the victim was struck from behind after leaving a bus on Booterstown Avenue. His wallet and briefcase containing a college thesis he had worked on for six months were stolen and never recovered.

The second robbery occurred on 20 April 2014 at Crampton Court, Dublin 2. The accomplice knocked the victim unconscious with a punch, and the teenager took his watch, two smartphones and €300 cash. Property worth €2,700 was stolen and never recovered.

The 17-year-old accomplice had been sentenced in December 2014 to four years in prison, with the final 18 months suspended.

Defence counsel David Whelahan BL said the teenager was not the main aggressor, had been under the accomplice’s influence and wanted to apologise. He said the youth had engaged well during six months in a detention centre in 2014 and had complied with his bail conditions since.