TWO AUSTRALIAN backpackers said they would never come to Dublin again, after two British criminals broke into their apartment, threatened to cut them up and robbed them, a court heard.
Wayne Jones (35), a panel beater, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing €1,050 in cash and a mobile phone worth €150 from a flat on Lower Gardiner Street on January 9th, 2007. Jones gave no address to gardaí.
Anthony Ward, Netherson, Liverpool, had already been jailed for two years for the offence, after earlier pleading guilty.
Det Sgt Michelle Kelly told Cormac Quinn, prosecuting, that Sarah Robbins and her partner, who were backpacking around the world, were asleep in their flat when they heard the front door being forced. Ms Robbins’s partner said that a sizeable man in the doorway told him he lived there. This was Ward.
Det Sgt Kelly said Jones then entered the room where Ms Robbins was sleeping, while Ward started to look for money and threatened them.
The detective said they gave him a purse but Ward emptied it onto the floor, saying he did not want coins.
“We’ll cut you up, we’ll stab you,” threatened Jones, who had 78 previous convictions.
Det Sgt Kelly said the victim offered to go to the ATM, thinking this would get them out, but one of the criminals said he would stay with Ms Robbins and “if anything happens, I’ll cut her throat”.
They then gave them their entire savings, €1,050, but Jones still wanted to stay, she said. She managed to get them out and gardaí arrested them and recovered the stolen property shortly afterwards. Jones has been in custody since.
A victim impact statement was handed into court in which Ms Robbins said she was fearful for their lives. The couple cut short their stay in Ireland and said they never wanted to return to Dublin.
Det Kelly said Jones had spent time in jail in Britain and had convictions for possessing offensive weapons, assaulting a police officer, burglaries, affray, resisting arrest, intimidating witnesses, dangerous and drunk driving, possessing drugs and others.
“It’s an impressive CV,” said Judge Frank O’Donnell.
John Fitzgerald, defending, said Jones had arrived in Ireland a few days earlier and was staying in a hostel on Gardiner Street while looking for work. He had spent the previous day drinking with Ward, whom he followed into the victims’ flat, where Ward said he was going to get money from a friend.
“At one stage, when in her room, he put his arm around Ms Robbins and said everything was going to be all right,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
Det Sgt Kelly agreed that the victims said Jones played “a lesser role”.
Mr Fitzgerald said his client had no ties in Ireland and had received no visitors in jail. His mother abandoned the family when he was 13 and his father was an alcoholic. He was in care as a teenager and ended up on the streets.
“I feel sorry for him and his background,” said Judge O’Donnell, “but he was saying he’d cut them up and the couple got out of Ireland as quickly as possible.”
He sentenced him to two years and six months, backdating it to the day he went into custody.