Drug addict given six years in prison for three robberies
By Sonya McLean
A chronic drug addict has been jailed for six years for carrying out three robberies in the space of 15 months.
Martin Kenny (48) grabbed a woman in her 60s who was doing her lotto numbers in her local bookmakers during one raid.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court
The woman said she was so terrified she couldn’t look at the robber’s face, but the cashier later told gardaí that the man had a pointed object underneath the woman’s chin.
In an earlier raid at a different bookmakers Kenny grabbed another customer in a headlock while holding a knife to his throat. He demanded cash and as he was leaving with €190, he punched another customer in the face, knocking him to the ground.
In the third incident a staff member at a petrol station had a knife pointed at him before Kenny robbed €400 and made his getaway on a mountain bike. He was arrested at a nearby Luas stop when gardaí spotted Kenny wearing only a tee-shirt on a cold day.
A jacket, that had been worn during the robbery had been dropped nearby, as had the mountain bike.
Garda Nathan McKenna, who gave evidence of the final two robberies, agreed with Kenny’s defence counsel Michael Hourigan BL, that Kenny was such a chronic drug-abuser at the time of his arrest, that he didn’t expect him to survive.
Kenny, of Croftwood Close, Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery and assault causing harm at Boyle Sports, Capel Street, on January 11, 2019.
He also pleaded guilty to robbery of €300 on the South Circular Road on March 30, 2019 and to an additional robbery of the Maxol Station on Walkinstown Avenue on April 18, 2020.
Kenny was on bail for the March robbery when he carried out the raid in April. His 45 previous convictions include ones for robbery and attempted robbery.
Judge Sarah Berkeley noted that Kenny had “very relevant previous convictions” which she described as an aggravating factor.
She acknowledged that he was a chronic drug-user, had previously tried to rehabilitate and had not come to the attention of prison authorities since his most recent imprisonment.
Judge Berkeley imposed a consecutive sentence of eight years for the three robberies.
She suspended the final two years of the sentence on condition that he engage with the Probation Service for two years upon his release.
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