‘I’m going to kill you’ drug addict tells woman (70)

A CHRONIC drug addict has been jailed for nine and a half years for two violent car hijackings during which he threatened to kill a woman and a married couple, reports Declan Brennan.

At around 5pm on January 8 last (2026) Anthony Cooney (38) held a knife to the neck of a 70-year- old woman after getting into her car, Garda Shane McConkey told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Cooney told her to drive to Clondalkin and she was terrified and began driving.

The woman later asked Cooney what he would do once they got to Clondalkin and he told her “I’m going to kill you”.

The woman believed she would be killed and began to slow the car down.

He began shouting at her to keep driving but the woman managed to stop the car and get out and Cooney drove off.

The victim had left her mobile phone in the car and when her daughter called it, Cooney answered and demanded €1,000 be paid for the return of the car.

The car was tracked to Emmet Road Dublin 8 using a “Find my phone” app and a dining knife was found in the back.

Four hours later, a 45-year-old teacher was picking his wife up from South Great Georges Street in Dublin city centre when Cooney opened the back door of their car and got in.

He began shouting at them both and when the woman tried to leave, he told her he would kill her husband if she did.

She got back in and Cooney pulled out a weapon, which the victims thought was a knife but which was later identified as a fork.

He told the driver he would kill the woman and as the man drove off he held the fork to the necks of each of them in turn.

At one stage, they were stopped in traffic and the driver tried to get the attention of other drivers.

Cooney noticed this and began stabbing the man in the arm with the fork and punched him to his head with his fist.

He told the man he would kill his wife if he tried this again.

He directed the man to drive through red lights at pedestrian crossings and continued to threaten the couple and stab at them with the fork.

He was demanding the driver hand over the keys and cash and the driver told him the key fob was in the boot.

Cooney told him to stop the car and get the fob while he held his wife in the car with the fork to her neck. After the man gave Cooney the fob, the couple managed to escape and get on to a passing bus.

Their ordeal lasted 15 minutes and the couple believed they would be killed throughout, Garda Shane McConkey said.

The woman told the court in a victim impact statement that “15 mins is a very long time when you don’t know if the person you love will be alive at the end of it”.

Cooney drove the car off across the city, hitting speeds over 100 km/h, driving on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic, and breaking red lights.

Dash-cam footage played in court showed him breaking a red light at the junction of the Naas road and the Kylemore road and crashing into a crossing commercial van.

The driver and passenger of this van were hospitalised but did not sustain serious injuries.

The van was written off and €8,500 paid out by the insurers.

The stolen car was also a write off and €31,000 was paid by the insurer. Cooney was arrested at the scene and was found to be too intoxicated to be interviewed.

When he was later questioned, he said he had taken a substantial amount of drugs on the day and could not remember the incidents.

When shown the dash-cam footage, he admitted the hijacking and apologised.

He was charged at Dublin District Court and refused bail and later entered signed pleas to 19 charges, including unlawful seizure, threats to kill, production of articles with intent to intimidate, assault causing harm, reckless endangerment and eight counts of dangerous driving.

His most recent address is hostel accommodation on Lord Edward Street, Dublin 2 and his 70 previous convictions include burglary, robbery and car theft.

He was on bail at the time of these offences for a public order offence committed in Tullamore.

Gda McConkey told Aideen Collard BL, prosecuting, that the second driver has almost total hearing loss now as a result of the trauma of the incident which has aggravated an earlier hearing condition.

He has not been able to return to teaching and this has had an impact on his family, his income and his own sense of identity.

In his victim impact statement, the man said he has experienced severe anxiety and palpitations when subsequently driving into the city.

He said the incident has affected him psychologically, emotionally, socially and financially and continues to affect every aspect of his life.

His wife said she continues to relive the ordeal via flashbacks and finds she has changed into a person who is easily frightened.

Gda McConkey agreed with Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, that this offending was in the context of Cooney trying to get money to feed his chronic drug addiction. He agreed there was no element of planning.

He agreed Cooney told gardai “he was really sorry” and that “he hoped some day that the victims might forgive him”.

Counsel said his client began using drugs before he was aged ten and was using heroin at 12 years old. He said at one point Cooney got completely clean through a demanding Christian drug rehabilitation programme but on the day he graduated from this he found out his mother had died.

Counsel said his client’s faith was shaken, he was in a rage and he returned to using drugs and a chaotic life. Counsel said his client wants to rehabilitate again and knows he is capable of that.

Judge Martin Nolan said Cooney had behaved deplorably on the night.

“He caused havoc and has left at least three people with huge trauma and a severely affected peace of mind. All of these people cannot go out in Dublin city without thinking of the incident,” he said.

He said the only real mitigation was the pleas of guilty. He said these are valuable as they mean the State doesn’t need to present a case and victims don’t need to give evidence at trial.”

He noted that Cooney is remorseful but said “it seems he is always remorseful”.

“Do I think he will reoffend. The jury is out. He has received chances before. He lost his mother. But these are things that happen.

“What he did is very very serious. He has to suffer a long term of imprisonment for his global misbehaviour,” he said.

He imposed a sentence of nine and a half years for the unlawful seizure involving the couple. The maximum penalty available to the court is 15 years.

He imposed a number of other sentences on the other offences with all sentences to run concurrently. He also disqualified Cooney from driving for eight years.

Addressing Cooney directly, the judge said “at certain points any sympathy courts may have evaporate when you behave in this outrageous manner”.