By Isabel Hayes
A woman who carried out a string of “wilfully volent” Dublin city centre assaults, including a knife attack on a man, has been jailed for two and a half years.
Nikita Ronan posed a danger to people on the streets on a number of occasions in 2023, Judge Elva Duffy said as she handed down the sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Ronan took part in an attack on a woman in the Morgan Hotel in Temple Bar, attacked a friend on the street and tried to grab her handbag, and slashed a man with a knife to his head and arm while robbing his phone on three separate incidents around the city centre between March and May 2023.
Ronan (29) of no fixed abode, has 134 previous convictions, including assault, theft, criminal damage, burglary, drugs and road traffic offences.
She has been in custody for a number of months.
In relation to the first incident, Garda James Keegan told Derek Cooney BL, prosecuting, that Ronan and another woman followed a woman into the Morgan Hotel on Fleet Street at around 6pm on March 5, 2023.
The pair proceeded to assault the woman, with Ronan picking her up and slamming her to the ground after her accomplice had kicked and punched her.
They fled the hotel but were arrested a short time later.
In the second incident, the court heard the injured party – who was known to Ronan – was walking along Aston Quay on the evening of April 4, 2023, when Ronan came up behind her and started attacking her “out of nowhere”.
In the course of the assault, Ronan attempted to rob the woman’s handbag but failed to do so, before fleeing the scene.
The woman suffered cuts and scratches to her face, along with a black eye and pain to her jaw.
A garda who arrived at the scene was arranging to bring the woman to hospital for treatment when Ronan was spotted across the road.
She was arrested.
In the final incident, which took place the following month on May 3, 2023, Ronan grabbed a man’s phone at Merchant’s Quay and ran off with it.
When he pursued her, she produced a knife and slashed his arm, the court heard.
He continued to run after her until she slashed him to the head.
The man was “pumping blood” the court heard and required hospital treatment and stitches.
He gave gardaí a description of Ronan, who was arrested a short time later.
She pleaded guilty to one count of assault in relation to the first incident, one count of assault causing harm in the second incident and two counts of assault causing harm as well as stealing a phone in relation to the third incident.
Karl Monahan BL, defending, said his client was educated to Junior Cert level and started using cannabis at the age of 17.
She was in an unhealthy relationship for about 10 years, during which time her drug use progressed to crack cocaine and heroin.
She was under the influence of various intoxicants during the three assaults.
Ronan’s mother died of cancer when she was in her early 20s, which was also difficult for her, counsel said.
Upon her release from custody, she is hoping to live with her father and start working.
She is deeply remorseful for her actions and currently on a methadone programme in custody, the court heard.
Sentencing Ronan, Judge Duffy said it was clear Ronan was “a danger to others on the street on a number of occasions as a result of various intoxicants”.
But she said the use of intoxicants was no excuse for the offending behaviour, which she described as “wilfully violent” and “unacceptable”.
“She is a violent and difficult person you wouldn’t want to encounter on the streets,” the judge said.
She handed down a sentence of three years and two months, and suspended the final eight months on a number of conditions.