Heroin addict robbed service station

A heroin addict jumped the counter of a service station in Cork City to rob almost €500 in cash and a bundle of lottery tickets but it was a luckless experience which resulted in a three-year jail sentence yesterday.

The robbery was carried out at the Topaz garage on Leitrim St, Cork, on Thursday, May 29. Conor O’Connor, aged 33, who had an apartment at 27 Leitrim St, pleaded guilty to his part in the robbery.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a four-year sentence and suspended the last year of it.

Garda John Paul Twomey said it happened shortly after 8pm. Two men wearing balaclavas rushed into the shop where there was a woman behind the counter and a man working on the shop floor. Two customers were at the end of the shop where O’Connor’s accomplice produced a knife and threatened them.

O’Connor said yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court: “I am very, very sorry for what I done to that lady on the day.

“I have a serious drug problem — prescription tablets problem and a heroin problem. I am getting on to a drug programme in Cork prison, attending classes and trying to get my life sorted. I know this is the last straw for me.”