TWO brothers who between them stole almost £78,000 in cash and jewellery in over a year have been jailed for 12 years each.
Jason (21) and Stephen (18) Byrne from Mariners' Port, Dublin, pleaded guilty in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a series of armed robberies carried out from November, 1995, to November, 1996. Their targets included shops, a post office and the office of the magazine, the Big Issues.
Several gardai gave evidence of the many offences in reply to prosecuting counsel, Ms Isobel Kennedy and Mr George Birmingham.
Both men made statements outlining their roles in the crimes which sometimes involved other defendants.
Garda John Dollard said he feared for his life during an attempted robbery at 4.30 a.m. on May 30th last of the Viart convenience shop at Amiens Street, near the brothers' home.
Jason Byrne pointed what turned out to be a faulty, unloaded airpistol at him while Stephen called "shoot him, shoot him".
Garda Dollard and two female colleagues had been on mobile patrol when he became suspicious because he couldn't see the staff while driving by the store.
He found the two masked brothers crouching behind the counter. The "shoot" call was made when he drew his baton. The two men were arrested. Judge Joseph Mathews praised Garda Dollard for his bravery and good work.
Garda Dollard said both men had been granted bail in the District Court and then in the High Court despite strong Garda objections.
In another incident, Det Garda Michael Quinn said that on June 11th, 1996, the brothers held a knife to the genital area of a Dun Laoghaire jeweller while a gun was placed between his eyes.
They got away with jewellery worth almost £65,000 and a little more than £5,000 cash and hired a taxi home. Del Quinn said they were traced as a result of their taxi ride, and a Claddagh ring from the haul was found in a search of their home.
A carpark video camera led to the arrest of Stephen Byrne and three others following a raid on April 2nd, 1996, of the Panasonic Shop in Dawson Street in which equipment worth £5,400 was taken.
The stolen car used by the gang was found some days after in the Setanta Centre nearby and gardai positively identified three of them.
Defence counsel, Ms Aileen Donnelly, (for Jason Byrne), and Mr Luigi Rea (for Stephen Byrne) said their clients had been suffering from serious drug addictions during their offending.
They came from a dysfunctional difficult background in an area where drugs were available on their doorsteps.
Mr Rea said his client was then addicted to crack cocaine which rendered him "more reckless than malicious".
Ms Donnelly said Jason Byrne was now studying for the Junior Certificate examination and had attended an "alternative to violence" course. Both accepted they needed drug treatment.
Judge Mathews imposed sentences of five to eight years on both men for most of the crimes and said he had no alternative but to impose a further four years consecutive to the eight years for the Dun Laoghaire robbery.
He said the 12 year sentence marked the seriousness of their crimes and was a warning and a deterrent to others who might want to imitate them. Their guilty pleas had saved them from much harsher punishment.
Judge Mathews said his sentence was intended to be balanced in the interest of justice. He hoped this was a turning point "in their young, troubled lives" and to give them hope for the future he would review the sentence on November 14th, 2001, five years from the date they went into custody.
"It is up to them now to decide what happens at the review. If the reports are not in their favour they will serve the full 12 year sentence but if I have evidence I can act on it will be in their favour," he added.