A recovering drug addict who punched a woman in the face during a street robbery has received a partially suspended four-year sentence.

Amy Cully (26) told gardaí that she was “completely out of her head” on a cocktail of crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol when she carried out the attack on two sisters.

Garda Sergeant Niall Godfrey told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Kathleen O’Neill was on her mobile phone and walking along Usher’s Quay on July 26, 2019 when she felt a punch “out of nowhere”.

The punch to the nose left the victim with bruising to her eye and cheek. Cully ….read more

A judge has refused to release a recovering drug addict out on bail after he told the court his pregnant partner has gone into self-isolation with Covid-19 symptoms.

Micheal Bayly (26) is in custody awaiting sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he pleaded guilty to carrying out a street robbery on March 29, 2018.

Bayly, of Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, Dublin failed to appear for his sentence hearing last November and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. A new sentence date of April 21 was set after gardaí arrested him on the warrant.

Defence barrister, Keith Spencer BL, told Judge Melanie ….read more

A mother-of-one who was taking crack cocaine when she robbed a woman at a cash machine has been jailed for two years.

April Reid (34) with an address at North Strand Cottages, Drogheda, Co Louth, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery at Ulster Bank, Phisborough, Dublin on March 23, 2019.

Passing sentence today, Judge Melanie Greally said that on the date in question, Reid “targeted and highlighted” the victim while she was withdrawing money from bank ATM.

Judge Greally said there was a physical encounter during which the victim sustained a minor injury to her left hand. The victim was ….read more

By Declan Brennan and Sonya McLean

A man awaiting trial on fraud and deception charges has been allowed out on short-term bail after a judge described him as “a vulnerable person in an overcrowded environment”.

Michael Hennessy’s trial for his part in alleged property purchase frauds was adjourned last week after a circuit court judge heard that the Covid-19 pandemic would prevent witnesses travelling from Spain.

Hennessy (63), of Coney Avenue, Coneyboro, Athy, Co Kildare was due to go on trial next month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The court heard that the alleged victims purchased properties which are all in Spain.

Last Friday ….read more

A jury have failed to reach verdicts in the remaining counts against a childcare worker accused of sexually assaulting four girls in a Leinster creche.

Yesterday the jury returned five verdicts of not guilty in relation to two of the four complainants. The man was acquitted on three charges relating to the first girl and acquitted of both charges in relation to the fourth girl.

The jury foreman had then asked Judge Elma Sheahan for more time to continue deliberations on the outstanding charges.

On day 23 of the trial today, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury told the judge that they were ….read more

By Declan Brennan and Sonya McLean

Two men have been jailed for four years each for the violent street robbery of a victim who they had followed after spotting his Rolex watch.

Nathan Benson (22) and Harry Walsh (19) had earlier seen the victim in a Dublin city centre nightclub and had commented on him wearing the Rolex watch. During the attack, the men pulled the watch, valued at €7,500, from the victim’s wrist.

Benson, of Woodfield, Scholarstown Road, Knocklyon, Dublin and Walsh of Woodfield, Knocklyon pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery on Wellington Quay, on October 22, 2017.

Judge Melanie ….read more

An Italian national who escorted three illegal immigrants on two flights from Italy into Dublin airport has been sentenced to 18 months with the final six months suspended.

Paula Dos Santos (22), who moved to Italy from Brazil when she was five years old, agreed to act as an escort for an Albanian man and his fiancée after they had been provided with bogus Italian identity cards.

She also admitted that she had chaperoned another Albanian man who came to Dublin in the same circumstances three months earlier.

Dos Santos, who has been on remand in prison since her arrest in Dublin airport ….read more

By Isabel Hayes and Declan Brennan

A childcare worker has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting one of four child complainants in a crèche.

On day 22 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the jury returned verdicts today on five of 23 charges of sexual assault allegedly carried out by the 29-year-old man.

The jury foreman asked Judge Elma Sheahan for more time to continue deliberations on the outstanding charges.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of sexually assaulting the girls at the crèche on dates between August 2014 and December ….read more

The jury in the trial of a childcare worker accused of sexually assaulting four girls in a Leinster creche has reached a verdict on several counts, a court has heard.

The jury has reached a verdict in nine of the 23 counts in the trial, the jury foreman told Judge Elma Sheahan today. The jury did not deliver the verdicts to the court and will resume deliberations on Monday.

The jury has been deliberating for over 12 hours in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial, which has been running for nearly six weeks.

They have been deliberating in an empty court room instead ….read more

A prisoner awaiting trial for sexual assault who has a “compromised immune system” has been refused bail.

The Dublin man (40), who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with sexually assaulting his former partner on March 17, 2019 – a charge which he denies. A trial had been fixed for Monday this week, but could not take place.

The man did not attend Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today but was instead able to view his bail application via video-link.

Garda Donal Tully told Fionnuala O’Sullivan BL, prosecuting, that the man’s former partner alleged he assaulted her in her bedroom, included beating ….read more