A FORMER professional soccer player with an English league club, Brighton, who became addicted to heroin on trips home to Dublin was jailed on robbery charges at Dublin District Court yesterday.
Noel Boylan (17), of Oliver Bond House, Dublin, pleaded guilty to three robberies last October. Garda Denis Harrington, of Pearse Street Garda Station, told the court Boylan threatened a 17 year old youth working in a cafe with a syringe and made him hand over £30.
Later that week Boylan returned to the same Nassau Street cafe and made the same youth hand over £35. On another occasion, Boylan made a publican's young son hand over £65 cash after threatening him in the family's Benburb Street pub.
Ms Yvonne Banbury, defending solicitor, told the court her client had become addicted to heroin when he returned home from Brighton and "the prospects he had are now gone". She said while his footballing career appeared to be over, he had started a drug treatment course.
Judge William Earley heard Boylan had previous convictions and was serving a sentence. He jailed him for 10 months.