A man has been jailed for five years for a “vicious and unprovoked attack” during which he stole a phone and smashed it on the ground.
Shane Cooney (33), of St Anthony's Road, Rialto, Dublin, appeared before Judge Patricia Ryan in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to robbery on the street he lived on July 17th, 2023.
Garda Tom Burns told Jane Murphy BL, prosecuting, that Cooney attacked the injured party, before taking his phone and smashing it on the ground.
Gardaí had been on patrol in the area when they were waved down by a member of the public. That person said she had seen Cooney assaulting her neighbour.
They arrived at the scene to see Cooney throwing the injured man's phone on the ground.
The man told gardaí he had been sitting outside his house drinking a coffee when he saw Cooney try to come on to his property. He had never seen Cooney before and the two men were not known to each other.
Cooney demanded the man's phone, so the man told him to go away and tried to shut the gate.
He told Cooney he was going to call the gardaí, at which point Cooney pulled him to the ground and began kicking and punching him.
Fear
The court heard the man was in fear for his life, and saw Cooney urinate at the front of his house before he walked away.
Cooney was arrested at the scene of the incident and brought to Kilmainham Garda station.
An ambulance was called, and the injured party was brought to St James's Hospital where his facial injuries were treated.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court, the man said he suffered psychological consequences of the attack and was afraid to leave his house in the evening.
He temporarily relocated with his wife following the robbery and needed to take sleeping tablets.
Nicola Cox BL, defending, described the incident as a “serious, vicious and unprovoked attack”, adding: “There's no excuse for it.”
She said her client had no memory of the incident because he was intoxicated at the time.
Counsel said her client refused to apply for bail after the incident as “his drug addiction and alcohol addiction had become so bad that he didn't want to be out in public anymore”.
Spiralling out of control
Ms Cox said her client wished to convey “his absolute regret that this offence occurred” and that his life had been “spiralling out of control” at the time.
“He needs to rebuild his life again after serving whatever sentence the court imposes,” she said, and asked the court to consider his early guilty plea and personal circumstances.
Cooney has 117 total previous convictions, including 27 in the Circuit Court, including robbery, attempted robbery and assault causing harm.
Sentencing, Judge Ryan said the aggravating factors were the serious nature of the crime, that it occurred on a residential road, Cooney's previous convictions, and that he overpowered a vulnerable man.
She said the mitigating factors include Cooney's early plea, the efforts he has made to rehabilitate himself, and that he went into custody at his own request.
Judge Ryan sentenced Cooney to six years imprisonment but suspended the final year on strict conditions.
The sentence was backdated to when Cooney went into custody on July 18th, 2023.
