Dublin man gets six years for violent armed robbery, garda assault and death threat to a grandmother

A Dublin man who took part in a violent armed robbery during which the victim had a gun pointed at her head and was dragged along the ground has been jailed for six years.

Christopher Coakley (aged 24) was one of two raiders who got in under the shutters of the Spar on Stiles Road in Clontarf before they “floored” the manager, and dragged her down the aisles demanding the shop keys from her.

The alarm was going off and they pointed an imitation gun to the woman's head to force her to give them the code. She instructed the men how to turn off the alarm but when they were unsuccessful she was held by the neck and pulled over to deactivate it herself.

The woman was continually held by the neck and dragged as the robbers demanded that she get them the safe.

Coakley of Belvedere Place, Dublin 1 pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery, possession of an imitation firearm and criminal damage at Spar on June 11, 2015.

He also admitted separate offences of assaulting gardaí Rory Heffernan and Mark Ronan, threatening to kill Anne Walsh and threat to damage Ms Walsh's property at St Michan's House, Greek Street on May 15, 2015.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years and three-and-a-half years for these crimes. These are concurrent to each other and to the six-year term for the robbery.

Coakley is currently serving a sentence for hijacking and is due for release in July 2017. He has a total of 94 previous convictions including road traffic, theft, drug, assault, throwing a missile and public order offences.

A victim impact report before the court in relation to the incident at the Spar store said that the woman constantly thinks about the robbery and being dragged around with a gun put to her head.

Garda John Fitzgerald told the court that €4,500 worth of damage had been done to the shutters. The gun was later found to be an imitation.

Anne Marie Lawlor BL, defending, said her client was hugely influenced by his older brother Blaine, after their father left when Christopher was still an infant. She said Coakley got involved in criminality, as his brother did, from a very early age and developed an addiction to drugs.

She said Coakley has spent more than half his life in institutions after leaving school following national school.

Ms Lawlor said Coakley's mother, whom she said has “professional insights” through her own work in addiction studies, claimed that Coakley had finally turned a corner in attempting to deal with his addiction in “a real way”.

“An addiction that has blighted most of his life,” counsel said referring to her client's mother evidence that Coakley had had “huge problems with drink and drugs since he was 14 years old”.

Judge Martin Nolan said that during the “serious” robbery the victim was grappled with and dragged to the floor, while a gun which was “very realistic to her” was held to her head.

He accepted that Coakley had “ambitions” to deal with his drug addiction but said he previously had a chance to do so and didn't avail of that chance.