A MAN who carried out a robbery at syringe point while on bail for a similar offence has been jailed for nine years in consecutive sentences by Judge Kevin Haugh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Bernard Boylan (31) accidentally stabbed a man with his syringe while robbing Halls newsagents of Parnell Street on April 23rd, 1995.
Det Garda Sean McAvinchey told Mr Tom O'Connell, prosecuting, the victim accepted there was no intention to stab him and he suffered no medical ill effects.
Two days later, Boylan tied up the manager of Replay in Mary Street and dumped a car tyre over his head before making off with a quantity of clothes, leaving his victim in the shop's storeroom. While on bail on this offence, Boylan again robbed Halls newsagency on May 18th, 1995, using a syringe.
Boylan, of Smithfield Terrace, Dublin, pleaded guilty to all the offences. Mr Luigi Rea, defending, said he was a qualified glazier whose employment was adversely affected by the shift in demand to double glazing. He had become a chronic heroin addict.
Mr Rea said his client accepted what he did was wrong and that he had to be jailed for his offences. He had not used any gratuitous, mindless violence despite using a syringe. While in custody he had weaned himself off heroin and intended applying for the drug free unit of prison.
Judge Haugh noted the robberies represented a new criminal departure for Boylan. He took into consideration that Boylan's guilty plea probably saved the court a long trial in which legal issues could have been tested.
Judge Haugh said he accepted that Boylan did not deliberately stab his victim in one robbery, but with the use of a syringe as a weapon there was always a high risk of this happening.
He imposed concurrent sentences of seven years for the first Halls robbery, five years for possession of a syringe on that occasion and five years for the Replay robbery in which a syringe was not used.
He said that as Boylan was on bail for the Replay offence when he committed the second Halls robbery, he had to impose a further four years sentence, consecutive to that five years.