Passenger who held knife to taxi driver’s throat left him in constant fear

A taxi driver said he was in constant fear after a passenger held a knife to his throat while he was driving.

James Mongan (33), of Carlton Terrace, Poppintree, Dublin, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery at Ballymun on July 11th, 2016, and will be sentenced in April.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday, Garda Mark Reay told Ronan Kennedy, prosecuting, that Mongan’s victim, a taxi driver of 26 years, was driving through Ballymun when he was flagged down by Mongan, who asked to be taken to St Margaret’s.

The pair engaged in “chit-chat” for a few minutes before the driver noticed Mongan had put his hood up and moved to the centre of the rear seat.

Mongan put a knife to the driver’s throat and said, “Give me the money or I’m going to stab you”, Mr Kennedy told the court.

The driver braked and managed to grip the blade with his hand and pull it away from him. He then grabbed a deodorant can, opened the car door and fell on to the street. When Mongan got out and pursued him, the driver sprayed the deodorant at him while shouting for gardaí.

“It just happened that a Garda car was coming around the corner at that moment,” Mr Kennedy told the court.

Wasteland

Mongan ran into nearby wasteland and was pursued by two gardaí who caught him when he tripped up. No knife was found at the scene.

The court heard the taxi driver suffered cuts to his fingers from the knife, which required stitches.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the driver said he now felt “vulnerable” after the attack, which left him in fear for his life.

He said he no longer wanted to drive a taxi but he was 55-years-old and felt he did not have any other skills.

“That night plays on my mind,” the statement said. “It’s like being a child at times. I’m now afraid of the dark.”

Defence counsel Emmet Nolan said Mongan, who has 65 previous convictions, wished to offer an “unreserved apology to the injured party for the disgraceful acts he committed”.

He said Mongan had taken cocaine before the offence, was going through a marriage break-up and had attempted suicide twice shortly before the incident.

He spiralled into drug addiction after witnessing the murder of a friend six years ago, the court heard.

Mongan, who comes from a Traveller background, left school at the age of 12 and was “practically illiterate”. He had been in custody since the incident, was now drug-free and had started learning to read in prison, the court heard.