Handbag thief facing 'severe' sentence

A man who caused severe injuries to two elderly pensioners while trying to rob their handbags will be sentenced by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on October 14.

"I really want to express my reproach for these crimes," Judge Michael White told the culprit, Keith Howe (aged 25), of Dowland Road, Walkinstown. "Those people’s lives will never be the same again," Judge White said, referring to the victims who are 75 and 85 years old.

Howe pleaded guilty to robbery on January 29 and February 12 this year from the two women who were both doing their shopping in the Crumlin area.

Garda Mark O’Neill told prosecuting counsel, Mr Garret Baker BL, that both women fell and broke one arm each when Howe attacked them. The 75-year-old woman broke her right arm and the 85-year-old woman broke her left.

Garda O’Neill said the latter woman needed surgical insertion of a steel plate on her arm and spent three days in hospital and over three months with the arm in a cast. Howe was caught by a passer-by on February 12 who heard her scream.

The passerby, who described Howe as "a junkie" held on to him until gardaí arrived. Howe asked the passer-by to let him go in exchange for the bag he had robbed from the elderly woman.

Mr Vincent Heneghan BL, defending, told Judge White that during their first meeting, Howe told him how "gutted" he was by his own actions. In the throes of chronic drug addiction at the time, Howe "lost all respect for himself" over his own actions.

Mr Heneghan said one of Howe’s victims lived quite close to his family home, making things difficult for his parents and other members of his family. At the time he committed the two robberies, he was not living at home as his parents had asked him to leave.

"They did not want him to lie at their doorstep as a junkie," Mr Heneghan said. Howe’s mother would have been able to raise bail for him when he was taken into custody but had wanted him to remain in remand and tackle his addiction. His family is supportive of his attempts to rehabilitate.

Judge White told Howe that while he was mindful of the "drug addiction plaguing you and your family", everyone was ultimately responsible for their own actions.

Judge White said he needed the benefit of a Probation and Welfare Services report before he structured the impending sentence, which he said, as Howe’s own counsel recognised, "should be severe".