A BURGLAR who left his mobile phone at a crime scene and rang it looking for its return has been sentenced to nine years in prison, with 18 months suspended, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for an assault and three robberies.
Garda John Ryan picked up the call on Paul Cullen’s phone pretending to be the house owner and arranged to meet the drug addict at a petrol station to give it back.
Cullen (30), Clonmacnoise Road, Crumlin, apologised on the phone to Garda Ryan, believing him to be a Mark O’Connor, and told him the burglary and subsequent assault was not his idea.
Garda Ryan said Mr O’Connor had encountered Cullen and an accomplice at his front door after a trip to the shop. The pair assaulted him before running off with a bag and jacket taken from the house.
Cullen also stole €100 from a pharmacy after rummaging through a till but was chased out of the shop by a staff member who had armed herself with a stool to protect her from a knife the raider was carrying.
He also robbed a taxi driver of his €50 cash float after holding the man at knife-point.
Cullen apologised for stealing from the taxi driver during a subsequent Garda interview, saying he “felt bad” because he understood how hard it was to work in the business. He addressed his statement to the victim saying: “Don’t let it affect your life, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Cullen pleaded guilty to trespass and theft at Mr O’Connor’s Crumlin home in July 2007.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing medication from a James’s Street resident on Halloween night 2008; robbery of the taxi driver near Dolphin House estate on January 1st, 2009, and robbery of a South Circular Road pharmacy on February 28th, 2009.
Cullen has 42 previous convictions including robbery and criminal damage and served time in an English jail for possessing a firearm.
Judge Katherine Delahunt said the incidents had been traumatic for all the victims and had ongoing consequences for them.
She accepted Cullen’s expression of remorse and the fact that he has now taken “full responsibility for his crimes”.