A MAN serving a seven year sentence for snatching an elderly nun's handbag had so reformed he was now wasting prison space, according to his counsel. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday suspended the final two years of the man's sentence.
The court was told that Joseph Mangan was now alcohol and drug free and there was nothing more prison could do for him. His counsel, Mr Bruce Antoniotti, told Judge Kieran O'Connor: "Prison has served this man well. I have never seen anybody who has so completely turned around. He is now wasting prison space."
Mangan (24), of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, was jailed in February 1994 after being convicted of snatching a handbag from a car driven by Sister Patricia O'Gorman in the Gardiner Street area. When he sentenced Mangan in 1994, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said he would review the sentence after five years. During that review yesterday, Judge O'Connor noted that Mangan had "even provoked the Assistant Governor of Mountjoy Prison to write a letter full of praise for your excellent behaviour in custody".