A CHRONIC heroin addict who has spent the majority of his life in jail has been given an eight-year sentence for a string of robberies.
They were committed after he was released from prison without assistance for his addiction, a court heard yesterday.
Seán Gillane, defending, said Lee Black left prison “with the shirt on his back and his addiction still in force”. Black (26), Smithfield Terrace, Smithfield, Dublin, had been on a methadone maintenance programme in jail, but was released without any form of reintegration programme in place.
Black, also known as Boylan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five robberies committed on dates between July and December 2007 at pharmacies, a hotel and a cheque-cashing establishment in Dublin city centre. He has 46 previous convictions which include 11 Circuit Court appearances on crimes such as robbery, assault, criminal damage, larceny, road traffic and firearms offences.
Mr Gillane told Judge Katherine Delahunt that Black had served five years of a lengthy sentence when he was granted temporary release and went back on heroin in the absence of the methadone he had been taking in jail.
Mr Gillane said his client, “came from soil poisoned by drug addiction” and “went off the rails” when on drugs. Black was repeatedly caught on CCTV when committing offences.
Judge Delahunt imposed consecutive sentences totalling eight years and suspended the final three years.
Anne-Marie Lawlor, prosecuting, told the court that Black had pleaded guilty to counts of robbery on five bills of indictment.
On July 6th, 2007 he, another man and a woman robbed €2,550 in cash from Cheque Cash on Bolton Street in Dublin.
Det Garda Brian Quirke told the court that the woman lured a member of staff outside while Black, armed with a claw hammer, and the other man, carrying a knife, threatened the manager of the shop. The crime was captured on CCTV and Black later fully admitted his role.