Tallaght teen with 33 previous convictions gets five months for robbing bicycle from cyclist

A TEENAGER (15) who robbed a bicycle from a cyclist was sentenced to five months detention by Tallaght Court.

The teenager, who has an address in Tallaght, had been found guilty of robbing a bicycle worth €200 from a male on Tallaght Bypass on November 7, 2016 and to possession of a golf club and damaging the bonnet of a car at another location in Tallaght also on November 7 last.

He had also been found guilty of burglary at a health centre in Tallaght on August 11, 2015.

He was accompanied by his mother. He is currently serving a sentence in Oberstown.

The court had heard that the injured party (15) had been cycling along the bypass on his electric bicycle at about 3pm on November 7, 2016, when the teenager came behind him and pulled him off his bike. The teenager then cycled off.

The injured party phoned his father and together they went to the teenager’s address.

The teenager told them that the Gardai in Tallaght had the bike.

The teenager then ran into his house with his friends and came out with golf clubs and they threatened his father and threw the golf clubs at his car.

In relation to the burglary, the court had heard that at 12.10pm on August 11 last, a burglary took place at an office on the first floor of the health centre.

A staff member later returned to the office and saw that €120 was missing in cash and coins from a box. CCTV evidence identified the teenager and another male entering the office between 12.10pm and 12.15pm.

The court had heard that the teenager had 33 previous convictions.

At Dublin Circuit Court on December 5 last, he had been sentenced to three years detention with 18 months suspended for assault causing harm.

He was before Judge McNamara for sentencing.

The teenager’s mother told Judge McNamara that her son had changed for the better since he had gone into detention. She said: “He’s a completely different young fella”.

She said that she had been in custody for an 18-month period beginning in 2012 and this had a bad effect on him. She said he used to get the Luas from Tallaght and visit her in the Dochas centre.

She said the teenager’s uncle had been murdered and added that his brother was due to make his confirmation in May and he would like to be out to attend the ceremony.

The mother said that he used to share a bedroom with his younger brother and the younger brother had been unable to sleep in the room since he went into detention.

Judge McNamara said she had to take into consideration the victims in the incident and that the teenager had “serious previous convictions”. She said the teenager had contested the robbery case which ensured that the “vulnerable” injured party had to give evidence.

The teenager’s solicitor, Michael Hennessy, said the sentencing was “a balancing act”.

Judge McNamara sentenced the teenager to five months detention on each of the offences from November 7, 2016 and ordered that they start at the end of the sentence he is currently serving.

She also sentenced him to three months detention for the burglary to run concurrently.