A "very dangerous" teenager has been given a 13-year prison sentence by Judge Michael White for violent crimes, including robbery, hijacking, assault and threatening to kill gardaí.
Leon Wright (18) was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 25 charges across five bills of indictment. He has 44 previous convictions for crimes including escape from custody, assault, making threats to kill, criminal damage, burglary, car theft and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.
Judge White said Wright presented the court with a "huge difficulty" in this very "unusual case" due to his background and the court's duty to society.
He suspended the last four years of Wright's prison term and granted leave to appeal severity of sentence.
Wright, of Droim na Coille Avenue, Ballyowen Lane, Lucan, Co Dublin, stabbed a youth in the leg during a robbery at Stephen's Green and at a later date hijacked two cars from women shopping at Liffey Valley.
In another incident he was involved in a 15-minute stand-off with gardaí in Lucan while armed with a knife, and threatening to go into a house and kill the occupants. He also violently resisted arrest in Skerries, Co Dublin, where he spat at, tried to bite and grabbed the testicles of a garda. He physically attacked gardaí at the Children's Court, and threatened to shoot one in the head.
Defence counsel said Wright faced "extreme" difficulties and had very serious problems.
Judge White considered health service, probation, psychiatric and risk-assessment reports on Wright. He said these made sobering reading, and suggested that while the teenager could be clear and articulate he was disposed to violence and was at a "very high risk of reoffending".
One report described Wright as dangerous both to himself and the public, with an anger so great it was uncontrollable.