Repeat teen offender given eight-month sentence after threatening security worker 

The teen also took part in a vicious mugging  along Dublin's Grand Canal. 

The youth already had 25 prior convictions.

A repeat teen offender has been given an eight-month sentence after he threatened a shop security worker at knife-point.

The youth had also taken part in a vicious mugging along Dublin's Grand Canal and was later caught driving a stolen Porsche car.

The 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children’s Court to driving a stolen car and without a licence or insurance, threatening to kill or cause serious harm to a shop security guard while armed with a knife, robbery, resisting arrest and trespassing.

He already had 25 prior convictions.

Judge Brendan Toale imposed an eight-month custodial sentence and 12-months supervised probation, as well as a two-year driving ban.

Garda Mark Curtis told Judge Toale that on July 7 last year the boy, then aged 16, was spotted driving a Porsche on Drumfin Road in Ballyfermot. The car had been stolen in the Dublin 4 area a couple of hours earlier. He was stopped and arrested.

Garda Jason O’Carroll said that in August 2018, the then 15-year-old boy was in a group of three youths who stopped a cyclist along the canal in Bluebell and threatened him with violence. They also demanded he hand over his phone and his bicycle. The teen was identified from CCTV.

Garda John Yeats told the court the teenager was seen in the early hours of March 20 at St Vincent Street.

He fled when approached and tried to climb into the back garden of a house causing €100 worth of damage to a gate as he resisted arrest. On April 26, he threatened a shop security guard while brandishing a knife, in Bluebell, in Dublin.

The latest offences were committed while he had a six-month suspended sentence hanging over him.

It was imposed last October for an unprovoked assault and a spate of robberies to fund his then €50 a day cannabis habit.

His solicitor Matthew Kenny said his client, who had been in custody on remand for a month, consented to the suspended sentence being activated. He was also realistic he faced a further sentence for the other charges, the solicitor said.

Mr Kenny said the teen had been getting on well in custody, in the Oberstown detention centre. He cannot be named because he is a minor.