By Claire Henry
A chronic drug addict with 245 previous convictions has been jailed for four years.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Carl Byrne (37) of Loretto Court, Rathfarnham, Dublin pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and production of an article in the form of a knife at Daybreak, Patrick Street in Dublin, on November 4, 2023
He further pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply at Dundrum Garda Station on October 7, 2024.
Byrne has 245 previous convictions, with all but one from the District Court.
Garda Maria Kenny told Patrick Jackson BL, prosecuting, that on the night of November 4, 2023, Byrne entered the Daybreak shop on Patrick Street along with another man.
Byrne took a packet of Jaffa Cakes from a shelf and put them under his top along with a can of alcohol. Two members of staff intervened and Byrne threatened them and threw items, including a wet floor sign, at the staff.
The court heard that Byrne struck one member of staff in the face and then produced a flick knife, saying: “I will kill you now.”
Byrne and the other man then fled the scene, but Byrne was identified on CCTV footage by gardai. He attended for interview and was detained, charged, interviewed and later released on bail.
A victim impact statement was handed into the court, but not read out.
Gda Kenny agreed with Brendan Hennessy BL, defending, that his client provided some details during the interview and entered an early guilty plea. He also agreed that Byrne has struggled with addiction for a long time,
Garda Fionn Doyle gave evidence that he was on patrol on the Western Road in Dundrum on October 7, 2024, when he came across Byrne. He noted there was a strong smell of cannabis off Byrne and he was taken to Dundrum Garda Station.
The court heard that Byrne was searched and six deal bags of crack cocaine, valued at €299, and six deal bags of heroin, valued at €315, were found concealed in Byrne’s underwear. He was arrested, interviewed and charged.
Gda Doyle agreed with defence counsel that Byrne was observed, detected, arrested and charged all within an hour. He also agreed that he was “familiar with Byrne for all the wrong reasons”.
Mr Hennessy said his client has an appalling list of previous convictions and described him as a “nuisance” offender. He said Byrne “got into addiction and hasn’t seemed to be able to get out of it”.
He described his client’s addiction as having “destroyed the best years of his life”.
Passing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe said this was “a very frightening ordeal for the staff who were just trying to earn their wages”. She noted Byrne “comes before the court with a huge amount of previous convictions”.
The judge noted that Byrne has suffered from a chronic drug problem. She said the mitigation in this case included his early guilty plea, his remorse and that he made some admissions.
She sentenced Byrne to three years and nine months for the attempted robbery at Daybreak and two concurrent sentences of 12 months for the possession of drugs for sale or supply, to run consecutively to the attempted robbery sentence.
In order to incentivise rehabilitation, she suspended the final nine months of the sentence for one year and placed him under the supervision of the Probation Service for one year post-release.