A Dublin man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for hijacking a car with a five-month-old baby in the back.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Noel Ryan (48), of no fixed abode in Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of hijacking a vehicle and one count of abduction of a child at Mountjoy Square in north Dublin city on September 23rd, 2024.
He has 41 previous convictions including for theft, aggravated burglary, road traffic matters and misuse of drugs.
In a victim impact statement the child’s mother said: “I felt a terror like I have never known before: the fear for my child’s safety”.
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“I watched my car drive off at speed with my child in it [with] a stranger ... My mind was picturing all possible outcomes, did he want my car or the baby?”
On Friday, Judge Martin Nolan said the child was left alone for the guts of three hours. He said the baby’s parents “had to endure what no parents should have to endure”.
Judge Nolan said :“I understand he was in the throes of addiction at the time, but he put himself in that position”.
The judge said Ryan was “reckless in regard to the child”. He said the only real mitigations were the early guilty plea.
The judge said he considers that the accused is shameful and apologetic and that he probably did not know there was a child in the car. He said “anyone informed by conscience would have put the car in some place it could have been found more easily”.
Judge Nolan sentenced Ryan to seven years in prison backdated to when he went into custody on this matter.
Detective Garda Paul Griffin told the court the mother of the child parked her car in Mountjoy Square. She went to the boot of her car and was setting up her child buggy when she heard her car door close. She ran to the driver’s door and saw Ryan inside.
She pulled open the door and began screaming that her baby was in the car.
The court viewed CCTV footage, which showed the woman holding onto the car door as Ryan drove off. She was dragged until she could no longer hold on.
Members of the public tried to stop the car and came to the woman’s assistance.
Det Gda Griffin said that almost every Garda car in Dublin was on alert and air support was deployed.
Two members of the public flagged down a garda and told him there was an alley nearby where cars are often abandoned. The garda checked the alley and found the vehicle.
The court heard the garda saw a baby’s foot, and when he opened the door, he saw the baby in its rear-facing car seat.
Ryan had used a credit card belonging to the mother. Gardaí viewed CCTV footage from the shop, and he was identified. Ryan was arrested the following day and was interviewed six times in total.
On the sixth interview, he made some admissions by saying: “I did not know there was a child in the car, I went to Clarence Street to get a friend to ring the gardaí”.
The father of the baby said in a victim impact statement that this was the “single worst day of my life”.
“I was thinking of the worst possible outcome. I blamed myself that I did not protect my family,” he said.
John Byrne SC, defending, said: “Anything I say is not to justify what my client has done.” Ryan has offered a heartfelt apology and there was no sinister motive.
”If he could turn back the clock, he would. He did not deliberately go out and take a car with a child in the back seat," said counsel.
