A man who repeatedly punched a 15-year-old boy in the course of stealing his rucksack was jailed for three-and-a-half years by Judge Martin Nolan.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard how Connor Stevenson (26) assaulted the boy (who was not named in court) as he and a friend were walking down the road near Glenageary Dart station in March of 2021.
The assault took place in circumstances where Stevenson was one of two men who approached the boys saying, “Give me the bag lads”, before attempting to grab it.
The teen boy resisted the robbery saying, “No, fuck off!” upon which Stevenson grabbed the youth by the neck.
Stevenson threw a punch at the boy, who managed to dodge the blow, before returning a punch.
The boy pushed his attacker away and was dragged by him into the road and then into bushes where the child was repeatedly punched in the head until he said, “Fine you can take my bag.”
Stevenson’s accomplice said “come on leave it”, the court heard.
Garda Aoife Lewis said that the boy then made his way to the nearest Garda station to report what had happened and that he had a swollen right eyebrow, a bloody nose, and marks on the back of his head.
Despite this, the boy said he didn’t need to go to the GP and has “been able to get on with his life”, the court heard.
CCTV from a local SPAR was used to identify Stevenson who was arrested on the 12th of July 2021.
Gda Lewis gave evidence that Stevenson was stopped while driving by Gardaí whereupon he gave a false name and that he has 72 previous convictions.
Among these are six convictions for Section 4 theft, eleven for breaches of the Public Order Act, two for assault, three for failure to appear before the courts, eight for driving without insurance, nine for having no road tax, and one for possession of a knife, and others related to breaches of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Stevenson’s defence counsel argued that of his client’s previous conviction, 42 were for Road Traffic Offences, and 56 were “summary only”.
42 of these had been accrued in 2017 alone, he said, arguing that Stevenson was a man who has “drink and drug problems”.
Addressing Gda Lewis, who was based at Dún Laoghaire Garda Station at the time, he said “You know him from the area.”
Garda Lewis agreed that Stevenson was “not too difficult to deal with” when not intoxicated and that the injured party “managed to get on with his life.”
Stevenson “never had a paternal figure” in his life in circumstances where his mother “was a drug user” who had lived with him in homeless hostels when he was between the ages of 10 and 13 yrs.
He was in the UK for a period where he was looked after by his sister, but had ended up “living on the street for a long time,”.
Stevenson’s defence said that although the assault was a “terrifying experience” for the “young man” who was the victim, his client’s guilty plea had spared the teen from having to come to court as he was “not looking forward to giving evidence”.
He said that Stevenson has a “huge degree of self awareness” and feels “remorse” for his actions and that he is currently an “enhanced prisoner” while on remand and is currently “drug free”.
He is being held in Portlaoise Prison and wishes to stay there as the environment is more conducive to his well being than Mountjoy, the court heard.
Considering sentencing, Judge Nolan said that the victim was “attacked”, “dragged”, “pushed to ground” and “punched” by a man who has a “long history of offending”, but that the guilty plea was an “important point of mitigation”.
Considering whether Stevenson will re-offend, he said that the court couldn’t be confident that he wouldn’t”, saying he should be kept in Portlaoise as requested.
Setting a headline sentence of five years for the “serious robbery” he sentenced Stevenson to three-and-a-half years in jail to be given “full credit” for any time he has already served in relation to the matter before the court.