Two men jailed for robbing youths in Kinsale

A detective said that CCTV footage showed Danny O’Brien and Brian Keane taking an “almost predatory” interest in the group.

A group of young people dining out in Kinsale were petrified when they were robbed by two men who showed them a long knife.

Detective Garda Michael Brosnan said the young people — all aged around 20 — had been sitting at a table outside a restaurant with their phones and wallets visible on the table.

The detective said that CCTV footage showed Danny O’Brien and Brian Keane taking an “almost predatory” interest in the group.

“They hatched a plan to rob the youngsters and did so at a local park.

“The young people were so petrified that one young woman almost vomited at the scene.” 

Phones and wallets

The robbers calmly told them to take out their wallets and smartphones and said they would not be taking iPhones because they believed these had tracking devices.

Brian Keane, aged 29, of 1A Market Place, Kinsale, County Cork, who is originally from Co Kerry, and 29-year-old Danny O’Brien of 70 Bracken Court, Donnybrook, Douglas, Cork, both pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery of €100 in cash on the first count, a mobile phone on the second and a jacket in the third offence.

Those robberies were carried out at Long Quay, Kinsale, on September 5 2020.

Danny O’Brien was arraigned separately on a charge from a second book of evidence and pleaded guilty to demanding with menaces €6,000 in cash or a Ford Fiesta car between June 1 2019 and July 26 2019 as payment for a drugs debt.

Sentencing

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced O’Brien to a total of three years consecutive to what he is already serving. He sentenced Keane to four years backdated to September 2020 when he went into custody.

Paula McCarthy, defending, said O’Brien had a diagnosis of depression but was doing well in prison. 

Det Garda Ian Breen said: “He certainly seems to me to be a changed man in custody.” 

Shane O’Callaghan, defending Keane, said the young man had an extremely difficult past — albeit with a family in Kerry who do their best to support him — and he has been in custody for the most part of his life since turning 17.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said the two men might forget their crimes but their young victims in Kinsale and the family who were threatened by O’Brien in Carrigaline were left with the trauma of what was done to them.