Members of a Polish family in Tralee suffered terrible consequences when they intercepted a burglar of Russian origin, a sentencing hearing was told.

A Galway resident who held a woman at syringe point in her van in the car park of Liffey Valley shopping centre has been jailed for three years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

A drug addict who drove a stolen car the wrong way down the M4 Lucan bypass causing six cars, including a garda patrol car, to "take evasive action" has been given a three year suspended sentence.

A teenager who set fire to a car wash in a petrol station and robbed the same shop 18 months later armed with a golf club has been sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Desmond Hogan.