A heroin addict who stole three pensioner's handbags has been jailed for three years.
In one robbery, Martin O'Brien (26) with an address at Pigeon House, Ringsend, followed a woman (79) home before forcing her front door in and dragging her out of the house as she held onto her handbag.
He swung her around before she was knocked against her car, which was parked in the driveway, and fell to the ground. He then ran off with her handbag, which contained €30 in cash.
The previous day he took the handbag from the shoulder of a 77-year-old woman. The following day he pulled a purse containing €200 from a 65-year-old woman, hitting another woman who came to the victim's aid as he escaped.
O'Brien, an unemployed father of two, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of a handbag and theft of the two handbags on March 26th and 27th, 2007 in Rathfarnham and Cabinteely.
Judge Katherine Delahunt said she could not accept €1,000 that O'Brien's mother and wife had saved and offered as a token of his remorse to his victims because she said his wife was expecting another child and the money would be needed at home.
She suspended the last year of the sentence having taken into account O'Brien's co-operation with gardaí and his plea of guilty.