A man who pushed and shoved a woman around her Dublin home while demanding money has been sentenced to six years for this offence as well as his role in an earlier robbery and for breaking into 13 cars.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the 67-year-old woman was packing up her car for a holiday when she locked her front door and went into her bathroom to find Lee Byrne (21) sitting on the edge of the bathtub.
Byrne shoved and pushed the woman before he grabbed her by the scruff of her jacket and brought her downstairs, while asking her where her money was.
He ultimately left the woman’s home 30 minutes later with a laptop and her bank cards after he was not happy with the €15 she had in her wallet.
Byrne of Termon Court, Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin pleaded guilty to burglary and theft, assault causing harm and false imprisonment of the woman at her home in Drumcondra on October 9th, 2018.
He further pleaded guilty to criminal damage of vehicles on St Margaret's Road in Finglas on April 1st, 2018 and to attempted robbery at Spar on Upper O'Connell Street on September 9th, 2018.
Byrne’s 51 previous convictions, 24 of which were committed as a child, include theft, criminal damage, burglary and road traffic offences.
Judge Melanie Greally jailed Byrne for 18 months in June this year for the criminal damage charges after she acknowledged that he had used a shatter hammer to smash the windows of the various vehicles. She accepted that all of the vehicles were covered by insurance and there were no victim impact reports before the court.
This 18 month sentence was backdated to when Byrne was first remanded in custody which left him with a release date in December this year.
Judge Greally noted that Byrne was on bail for this offence when he and an accomplice attempted to rob staff at the Spar shop while his co-accused used a knife. Byrne was also on bail for the burglary of the woman’s home in Drumcondra.
On Wednesday Judge Greally sentenced Byrne to an additional four and a half years in prison which is to run consecutive to the 18 month term imposed in June. She suspended the final 12 months of this sentence having taken into account Byrne’s youth, extreme addiction and genuine remorse.
Judge Greally said the burglary of the woman’s house was the more serious offence as it was a violation of her home and he had been violent towards her.
Bank cards
Garda Shane Darcy told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that the woman believed she was going to die because of how aggressive Byrne was with her.
She handed over her bank cards to him and gave him a false pin code but Byrne kept insisting that she hadn’t given him the right pin. She continued to try and assure him that was the correct code for her cards. He left her home a short time later after she unlocked the front door for him.
The woman contacted gardaí and was able to tell officers what direction Byrne had gone in. He was arrested a short time later and found to have some of her cards on him.
Garda Darcy said the woman had bruises on her shoulder, hip and arm but she hadn’t gone to the doctor as she was heading on holidays. She said there were occasions when she could still see Byrne sitting on her bath.
Garda Darcy agreed with Rebecca Smith BL, defending, that Byrne was suffering from a drug addiction at the time.
Garda Louise Moran told Ms McGowan that Byrne and an accomplice tried to rob the Spar on O’Connell Street. While the second raider threatened staff with a knife, Byrne threw chocolate and chewing gum at staff.
The pair fled without taking any cash and were later identified on CCTV footage of the raid.
Byrne apologised in a garda interview and said he was “stoned out my head and on a lot of pills”. He accepted that the staff would have been terrified.
Ms Smith said Byrne had the support of both his mother and grandmother in court.
She said he had started taking cannabis at a young age which escalated to him taking cocaine. She said Byrne was living in hostels, had a very difficult drug addiction and had little recollection of what happened that night.
She added that Byrne was sorry for his actions on the night but was “aware that he cannot recompense for what he did”.
He had used his time in custody well, she said, and had participated in a charity run for cancer and was no longer abusing drugs.