Judge gives seven years to foiled robber

A father of one whose getaway car was pushed into a ditch by a garda after a foiled Enniskerry robbery has been given a seven-year sentence by Judge Katherine Delahunt.

David Shannon (aged 29) of St Andrew's Court, in Dublin city centre was one of two men who tried to raid a Brinks security van as it pulled into The Scalp Service Station at Enniskerry when a garda patrol car arrived in the forecourt.

The Brinks van carried a "substantial" amount of money collected from premises earlier and the would-be raiders ran to their stolen BMW getaway car.

Garda Gerry Tobin then blocked the BMW with his patrol car and managed to manoeuvre it so that it fell into a ditch, rendering it immobile.

Detective Garda Ciaran Murphy told prosecuting counsel, Mr Bernard Condon BL, that Shannon and two other men ran from the car into the nearby forest at which point the Garda Helicopter and the Dog Unit were called in to assist in their apprehension.

People in the forest, including a group of school children on a field trip, had to evacuate the area.

Det Gda Murphy said Shannon and one accomplice were later spotted by gardaí hiding in undergrowth in the forest. They lay down and held their hands up as soon as gardaí called out to them. A firearm, rounds of ammunition, a balaclava and gloves were found in the forest.

Shannon pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery and possession of a firearm on October 13, 2005. He had 43 previous convictions and was on bail at the time of the offence.

Judge Delahunt said that it was obviously a "well planned enterprise" and said it was fortunate for everyone that the raid was foiled by the "very brave intervention of Garda Tobin".

She said if it were not for a number of mitigating factors, including that Shannon had made attempts to combat an alcohol addiction, his plea of guilty and that he had not come to attention of gardaí since, the case would have warranted a nine-year sentence.

Judge Delahunt imposed a seven-year term and suspended the last year of it on strict conditions.

Det Gda Murphy said that a Brinks staff member was about to walk into the Scalp Service Station when he was grabbed by the right arm and elbow and saw a gun pointed into his ribs by a masked man who dropped the weapon and ran on the arrival of the gardaí car.

Det Gda Murphy said the BMW getaway car had been stolen from outside the owner's home in Clonskeagh the previous month.

Shannon made no comment during garda interviews, but CCTV footage and forensic analysis linked him to the attempted robbery and confirmed he was the raider who held the gun to the Brinks staff member.

Det Gda Murphy rejected a suggestion by defence counsel Mr Conor Devally SC (with Mr Damien Colgan BL) that Shannon claimed he had been drawn into this offence because of a gambling debt he had built up.

He said Shannon had refused to say anything during interview so he could not comment on his motivation behind the crime.

Det Gda Murphy agreed that this offence represented a "significant step up the ladder" for Shannon whose bulk of previous convictions had been for minor offences and had been dealt with in the District Court.

Mr Devally told Judge Delahunt that Shannon had a "fairly hopeless" background and a report from a clinical psychologist confirmed that his father had been a significant alcoholic who had spent much of Shannon's childhood in prison.

Shannon left school at 14 years of age and soon developed an alcohol addiction and began getting into trouble with gardaí. He added that Shannon had probably been in institutions as much as out of them.

Mr Devally said Shannon had since formed a long-term relationship with a woman from "a stable background" and they had a baby boy together.

He said Shannon's child had "finally given him a reason to be mature and given him a wish to live for somebody other than himself". He had also been attending counselling to help overcome his addiction.