Today's other stories in brief
Businessman handled stolen Easter eggs
A 48-year-old businessman found guilty of handling stolen Easter eggs worth €9,000 has been jailed for a year by Judge Michael White at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The judge cited Garda evidence that they believed the crime was benefiting subversives.
Colm Doran, a father of one, of Northway Estate, Finglas, had been convicted by a jury in February of handling 26 pallets of Easter eggs, worth €9,000, on January 22nd, 2002.
His sister, Mary Doran, said her brother was a "decent guy" who "got mixed up with the wrong people".
However, Judge White said the case merited a custodial sentence.
"A person who facilitates criminals commits a grave offence and in this case An Garda Síochána believed it was benefiting a subversive organisation."
Det Sgt Walter O'Connell of Store Street station, told prosecuting counsel Tony Hunt that a Garda surveillance team followed a truck and a car from the Dublin Docks to a warehouse in Wotton, The Ward, Co Meath.
A search warrant was obtained and when gardaí entered the warehouse they found Doran and three others inside. They found 26 pallets of Easter eggs in the back of the truck.
Father put knife to woman's throat
A 28-year-old father of two was sentenced to four years in jail yesterday after he admitted subjecting a young woman to a terrifying ordeal when he jumped into her car and hijacked the vehicle by putting a knife to her throat, reports Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent.
Pawel Folta, a Polish national with an address at The Green, Dun Eala, Fermoy, pleaded guilty to three offences including hijacking Fiona O'Farrell's car at knife-point, producing a knife to intimidate her and stealing her mobile phone and €30.
Ms O'Farrell had stopped to get petrol at the Texaco Service Station on the Cork Road in Fermoy at around 6.55am on December 8th last when Folta jumped into the passenger seat beside her, threatened her at knife-point and ordered her to drive him to Cork.
Det Garda Eugene Farrell said Ms O'Farrell agreed to do so but she became fearful for her life when Folta ordered her to turn off the main road at Rathcormac so she stalled the car and managed to run back to the main road where she raised the alarm.
Det Garda Farrell said that he had been on duty earlier that morning in Fermoy and had come across Folta loitering suspiciously on four separate occasions and had checked his identity. When Ms O'Farrell described her assailant to gardaí, he suspected it was Folta.
He had been in Ireland for three months at the time working as a kerb-layer and had become homesick for his wife and children back in Poland, said his barrister Shay Roche BL, who asked Judge Patrick Moran to be as lenient as possible with his client.
Judge Moran said that Ms O'Farrell had been effectively been kidnapped and it must have a terrifying experience for her.
He commended her on her bravery and Det Garda Farrell for his detective work as he sentenced Folta to four years in jail.
Gardaí search for armed robber
Gardaí in north Cork were last night searching for an armed man in his 20s who hijacked a car from an elderly man and later held up a credit union and made off with an estimated €5,000 in cash.
The raider hijacked a car driven by a 70-year-old man near Conna in north Cork shortly after 11am when the man got out of the car to remove branches which had been placed across the road.
The raider jumped into the car and drove off leaving the man on the road. At Glanmire near Cork city he held up staff at the local credit union and made off with the money.