Six years for syringe raid

A drug addict who traumatised shop staff with a bloody syringe during a robbery has received a six year sentence with two suspended at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Karl Valentine (aged 38) covered his face with a scarf, entered Centra on Ballinteer Road, Dublin holding a syringe and told staff: “Give me the money, I want all of it. I have the virus and I’ve nothing to lose.”

Gardai traced the robbery to Valentine through CCTV and DNA testing after he left blood on the shop’s counter.

Detective Sergeant Eugene Stapleton said one of the employees had accidentally put his hand in the blood, causing him huge concern.

Valentine, of Carrigmount Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, pleaded guilty to robbing €509 cash from the Centra on October 25, 2008.

He has 48 previous convictions dating back to 1987, including a six year sentence for firearms possession in 1994 and four years for robbery in 2005.

Det Sgt Stapleton told Ms Karen O’Connor BL, prosecuting, that Valentine had been on temporary release from prison for three weeks when he committed this latest offence.

The detective sergeant said two Centra staff had been at the back of the shop attending a leak when Valentine entered with a syringe and demanded money.

The staff described the robber as “strung-out” and “off-balance”.

One employee cleaned a patch of blood left on the counter with a tissue and gave it to gardaí, who analysed it for DNA.

Det Sgt Stapleton said the Centra staff described the event as traumatic, both men were shocked and neither feel comfortable working in the shop at night.

Det Sgt Stapleton agreed with Mr James Dwyer BL, defending that his client, a father-of-two, had spent a lot of time in jail for crimes in the Rathfarnham/Dundrum area.

Judge Katherine Delahunt noted Valentine’s recent efforts to address his addiction which she accepted was “the root cause of his offending.”

She backdated the sentence to when he entered custody in March 2009.