Bag-snatching from tourists is a "particularly heinous" offence and has to stop, a senior judge said yesterday when refusing a bail application by a heroin addict serving a nine-year sentence for stealing a handbag from an English tourist.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty, presiding at the Court of Criminal Appeal, said bag-snatching from anybody was wrong but it was particularly heinous in respect of tourists, who found themselves bereft of essential documents like passports and travellers' cheques. Such offences would have to be dealt with by exemplary sentences.
Sabrina Walsh was jailed for nine years last month for stealing a handbag containing nearly £10,000 in cash and jewellery owned by an English tourist. Her counsel, Mr Raymond Farrell, said yesterday the case was one of straightforward larceny. The bag had been taken from the floor of a restaurant. His client was unaware of who owned it.
The Court of Criminal Appeal refused bail to Walsh (20), unemployed, of Coultry Road, Dublin. It indicated it would be prepared to deal with an appeal in the next law term.
In the Circuit Criminal Court on June 30th, Judge Kieran O'Connor listed the case for review in June 2000. He said Walsh would be considered for release then if she was drug free for six months and pursuing an educational course.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty said yesterday that while ostensibly Walsh had been sentenced to nine years, the judge had undertaken to review the case after two years. If she honoured that regime, she had every chance of being out after two years.
Walsh had pleaded guilty to the larceny of the bag on December 12th, 1997, in Dawson Street. She had six previous convictions.