Man jailed for five years for crime spree in Cork

A prolific offender who nearly strangled a woman while trying to steal her handbag in a mugging has been jailed for five years for a spate of theft and robbery offences in Cork last year.

Don Duggan (28), a drug addict from Ballinderry Park in Mayfield in Cork pleaded guilty to a total of six offences on two separate dates in 2015 when he appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Duggan pleaded guilty to stealing a car at Thurles Railway Station, using another stolen car and illegal possession of a rifle and ammunition at Glanmire in Co Cork all on August 26th, 2015.

He also pleaded guilty to theft at a house on Kerry Road in Mayfield, robbery at Murmont Crescent, Mayfield and theft from a house on Old Youghal road in Mayfield on December22nd, 2015.

Det Sgt Kieran O'Sullivan said that Duggan had been charged with the Tipperary and Glanmire offences and was out on bail on these when he committed the offences in Mayfield in December.

He told the court that Duggan approached a 39 year old woman as she got off the bus on the Old Youghal Road in Mayfield and went to grab her handbag which she was carrying on her shoulder.

Strangling

In trying to get away with the handbag, he ended up nearly strangling the woman with the strap of the handbag wrapping around her neck before it eventually came free and he made off with it.

The woman gave chase and caught up with Duggan who knocked her to the ground before he fled into a housing estate but the pursuit was seen by two witnesses who identified Duggan to gardaí.

Earlier the same day he had entered into a house on Kerry Road but was disturbed by the owner’s 18-year-old daughter who came down stairs and spotted him and he fled empty-handed.

And later that same day, he broke into a house on Old Youghal Road and took car keys belonging to the owner’s son and his rented car was taken and later found abandoned in Co Tipperary.

Det Sgt O’Sullivan told how Duggan had got off the Cork-Dublin train in Thurles on August 26th, 2015 and stole a jeep only to abandon it and take a second car containing a rifle and ammunition.

The theft of the rifle was incidental but he was spotted walking through Glanmire village with the rifle which caused a lot of concern before he was apprehended by two gardaí on patrol.

Duggan was fully co-operative with gardaí when he was arrested and questioned on both occasions, said Det O’Sullivan who accepted that Duggan had a chronic drug addiction problem.

Duggan had a total of 115 previous convictions including ones for robbery, theft, assault, criminal damage as well as road traffic offences and was a serial offender, said Det Sgt O’Sullivan.

'Prolific offender'

Judge Sean O Donnabhain described Duggan as "a prolific offender" who seemed to have learned very little or had very little insight into the destruction that his offending was causing to people.

He accepted that Duggan had a long standing drug problem but noted it was an aggravating factor that he had committed the December offences while out on bail for the August offences.

And he noted that all three of the Mayfield offences were committed over the course of one day, December 22nd, 2015 when it appeared that Duggan was “totally out of control”.

He said the manner in which he had robbed the woman of her handbag, grabbing it and pulling and twisting it around her neck so that she nearly choked was “quite disgraceful”.

He sentenced Duggan to two years in jail for the August offences in Tipperary and Glanmire and then four years consecutive for the December offences in Mayfield because he was on bail at the time.

He suspended the final year of the six year term on condition he go to a residential drug treatment centre upon his release and he backdated the sentence to January when he went into custody.