A young woman has been jailed for eight years for her role in three robberies of women involving cash and rings in Dublin city centre. Joeleen O'Brien (18) walked into a shop to buy chocolate a few days after one robbery on January 22nd this year to find her victim behind the counter. She was held by a security man until gardai arrived. Judge Kieran O'Connor said: "That proves there is some justice in the world after all."
O'Brien, from Cherry Orchard Avenue, Ballyfermot, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three charges of robbery and was jailed for eight years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. She is currently serving a two-year sentence imposed by Judge Desmond Windle in the District Court for her first offence of shoplifting.
Judge O'Connor said O'Brien could have a review of his eight-year sentences on July 13th, 1999, and, on condition she was drug-free for at least six months by then, he would recommend that the balance of the sentences be suspended.
Garda Michael Tynan told prosecuting counsel, Mr Conor Devalley, that he arrested O'Brien and a male accomplice following two robberies on January 28th in Busaras and shortly after that at Custom House Quay.
In both crimes, they sat down each side of a woman waiting for a bus and said they had a syringe which would be used unless she handed over her property. The woman in Busaras handed over a mobile tape machine and rings, and the second victim handed over rings.
Garda Tynan said O'Brien talked for some time with the Busaras victim and apologised for the robbery. She said she wanted to get off heroin and had had a very difficult life. He saw both culprits walking in the area soon after the second crime and recognised them from a security video recorded in Busaras. The stolen property was recovered.
Defence counsel Mr Paul McDermott said his client had been practically living on the streets since she was 15. Her first sentence of two years for a first offence of shoplifting was very severe. He did not want to give the details in open court of her tragic life as revealed in the reports but the reports and evidence showed she was trying to sort out her life.