Man jailed for 3 years for spate of car thefts and attempted hijackings

A young man who carried out a spate of car thefts, including attempting to hijack two women as they drove in their cars, has been jailed for three years.

Sean Marsh and a juvenile accomplice unsuccessfully tried to take a woman’s car as she drove out of her driveway in Malahide, Dublin, in July last year before they caused another woman to swerve when they tried to stop her car as she drove along the road.

They threw a bottle at that woman’s car, smashing the rear window, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today.

The pair then entered a third woman’s house nearby before she saw them and told them to get out, Garda Michael Bolton told John Berry BL, prosecuting.

At the time, Marsh was on bail for a spate of car thefts at various locations in Dublin in June and July 2019, as well as for stealing diesel from a service station, the court heard.

Marsh (20) pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to take a car without permission, one count of damaging a car window and one count of trespass in a manner likely to cause fear at Malahide on July 13, 2020.

He further pleaded guilty to three counts of using a car without the consent of the owner in various locations in Dublin between June and July 2019 and one count of stealing diesel from an Applegreen service station in Baldoyle on June 29, 2019.

Marsh, with an address in Swans Nest Avenue, Kilbarrack, has 23 previous convictions including theft and trespass. He has been in custody since July last year.

Sentencing him today, Judge Martin Nolan said Marsh “terrified the drivers” whose cars he attempted to take.

He handed down a four year sentence but suspended the final year and backdated it to when Marsh went into custody. He adjourned the case to April 13 to allow for victim impact statements to be made.

The court heard that at around 8.30am on the morning of the Malahide incidents, Marsh’s first victim was edging her Mercedes car out of her driveway on Seamount Road when she was stopped by “two boys” who asked her for directions.

The conversation “changed quite quickly” with the young men repeatedly telling her: “Get out of the car” and “You won’t get hurt”, Gda Bolton said.

They then tried to pull the car door open, but it was prevented from opening fully due to a garden pillar and the woman managed to pull it closed and drive away. She was “absolutely terrified”, the court heard, and called gardaí immediately.

Meanwhile, the duo started walking down the middle of the road where they attempted to flag down a car being driven by another woman.

This driver was forced to swerve to avoid the pair, who then threw a bottle through her rear window, smashing it.

A short while later, they walked into a house on the road before being told to get out by the woman who lived there. They were arrested a short while later in the area.

The court heard Marsh’s co-accused is still a juvenile.

Jennifer Jackson BL, defending, said her client had been at a party the night before and was still intoxicated when he carried out the offences that morning.

She said Marsh was only 19 at the time. He has been in custody ever since and has found it “very tough”, the court heard.