A heroin addict who told a 12- year-old girl he would stab her to death if she did not hand over her mobile phone has been jailed for two years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
John Paul McDonagh (21) of Cara Park, Coolock, pleaded guilty to robbery and to stealing a car on March 26th, 2004.
Garda Dermot McKenna told the court the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was listening to the radio on her mobile phone with some friends when McDonagh and his girlfriend approached her.
They asked her if she knew where the Whites lived. The girl turned to look and saw that McDonagh was pointing a screwdriver at her. He gestured the screwdriver towards her stomach and said he would stab her if she did not give him the phone.
Garda McKenna said the girl was in fear of her life and gave the phone to McDonagh who then fled.
McDonagh was arrested by gardaí after the girl identified him through photographs she was shown at the Garda station. He admitted robbing the girl and stealing a Nissan Sunny car outside a house in Raheny on the same day.
Garda McKenna agreed with Caroline Biggs, defending, that the car was returned to its owner but said there was damage to the ignition and the driver's door.
He further accepted that both McDonagh and his girlfriend were under the influence of drugs at the time of the robbery and that McDonagh had sold the mobile to allow him to buy drugs.
Ms Biggs told Judge Desmond Hogan that McDonagh had been a heroin addict from the age of 16 and committed the offence in desperate circumstances.
Judge Hogan sentenced McDonagh to two years in prison and backdated it to March 29th, 2004, when he first went into custody for the offence.