Teenage murderer jailed for robbing €250 10 days before fatal assault

By Isabel Hayes

A teenage murderer who kicked a man to death has been sentenced to 18 months detention for robbing a man of €250 in cash a number of days beforehand.

The Dublin boy, who can’t be named because he is still a juvenile, is currently serving a life sentence with a review after eight years.

He was living in the care of the state when he approached two young men in September 2020, robbed one of them of €250 in cash and told them: “If I find you I will fucking stab the pair of you,” Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Ten days later on September 14, the boy kicked 39-year-old Claudio Robu to death in a laneway off Madison Road, South Circular Road, Dublin 8. He was 16 years old at the time.

The now 17-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of robbing cash at the Q car park in St Stephen’s Green shopping centre on September 4, 2020.

Sentencing the boy today, Judge Pauline Codd noted it was an unusual case, given that the offender was a minor who had no previous convictions when he carried out the robbery, but who was now serving a life sentence for murder.

The judge noted that by law, the 18-month sentence must run concurrent to the life sentence he is serving, currently in Oberstown detention centre.

The judge noted the boy had a “chaotic and difficult childhood” and had suffered abandonment as a young child.

Defence counsel described him as a “powder keg” at the time of the robbery and murder offences.

“His life to date has been marred by violence, abandonment, addiction and drug abuse,” Seoirse O Dúnlaing BL, defending, told the court.

The court heard the boy was born in Slovakia. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother abandoned him and moved to the UK when he was a child, leaving him in the care of his stepfather.

His stepfather was charged with assault causing him harm and the boy was taken into State care at the age of 16.

Garda Alan O’Dowd told Garrett McCormack BL, prosecuting, that the 18-year-old victim and his friend were in the St Stephen’s Green car park when they were approached by the boy and a co-accused.

The boy “squared up” to the victim, snatched a bag of tobacco from his hand and told him: “I’ll bash your fucking head in. What fucking else have you got in there.”

The boy then took the young man’s wallet and emptied it of €250 in cash before the victim and his friend fled. They called 999 and gardaí found the boy not far from the scene after viewing CCTV footage. He had €170 left in cash on him.

Defence counsel said the boy was in a care home and being left to his own devices at the time. He was associating with a negative peer group and using drugs.

He committed the murder 10 days later and has been in custody ever since.