Addict robbed mum pushing buggy
Jamie O’Hara, aged 20, went up to Lisa Warren while she was crossing her local park in Tallaght around lunchtime with her four-year-old daughter and a four-month-old baby in a push chair.
O’Hara started grabbing at her bag, which was strapped around the buggy. The victim feared her baby would fall out and so kept hold of the bag.
Eventually she let go and he took the bag. She told him there were only nappies in it and he came back and asked her for money or for her mobile phone.
When she gave him her phone he said “that’s a fucking Nokia” and then tried unsuccessfully to unlock it after asking her for the code.
He asked her to promise it was the right code, saying: “Swear on the kids or I’ll hurt you. I’ll fucking kill you.” He cycled off and told her not to contact gardaí.
The victim was anxious and frightened during the attack and felt O’Hara was capable of doing anything, the court heard. She cried for days afterwards and suffered panic attacks.
Garda Daragh Kelly said she now feels constantly anxious when outside.
O’Hara of Killinarden Estate, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of a phone at Sean Walsh Park, Tallaght, on September 9, 2014.
He also admitted stealing a mobile phone at Old Blessington Rd, Tallaght, and stealing a purse at the South Dublin County Council offices on the same date.
He was on bail at the time for two other offences committed earlier that year. He pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of a mobile phone on May 13 and to unlawfully producing a knife to intimidate on June 30, both at Sean Walsh Park.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring said the local park is now a much safer place than it was with O’Hara in custody. She suspended the last year of a four-year term on condition that O’Hara go under the supervision of the Probation Services for that time.
