A 45-yr-old man from Dublin has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a series of shop robberies in the city, including one where he threatened a customer with a knife, reports Breaking News.
Diarmuida Molloy, who had addresses on Bride Road and Lower Gardiner Street, appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to three robberies and to possessing a knife to intimidate a customer.
The offences included an attempted robbery at Tesco on College Green on June 21st, 2022; a robbery and false imprisonment at Brady’s Pharmacy on Camden Street the next day; and a robbery and knife intimidation at Thomas Street Pharmacy on June 24th, 2022, reports Breaking News.
During the Brady’s Pharmacy robbery, the court heard Molloy grabbed a female customer and threatened: “Open the till or I’ll hurt her,” several times.
The cashier he threatened was a 78-year-old woman who was left deeply shaken by the ordeal. Judge Martin Nolan remarked she was ‘pretty resilient’ upon learning she was still working there two years later, reports Breaking News.
After the Brady’s incident, Molloy was seen on CCTV changing clothes in a doorway, helped by another man who provided the new clothes.
Footage was also key to the investigation into the robbery on Thomas Street.
He was seen loitering outside before entering the pharmacy shortly after a woman walked in, reports Breaking News.
Witnesses said he followed the customer inside, demanded to speak with staff in a rude manner, and then approached her. He grabbed her, placed her in a chokehold, and brandished a six-inch knife.
He told the staff: “Give me money or she’s going to be stabbed,” and “I’ll slit her throat,” reports Breaking News.
After receiving money, he fled and changed his clothes again, having already changed before entering the pharmacy.
In the Tesco incident, Molloy threatened to stab a cashier unless he was given a box of cigarettes, reports Breaking News.
Defending him, Carol Doherty BL told the court that Molloy was ashamed of his actions. She said he had been suicidal at the time and wanted to die.
She explained that Molloy had experienced severe and repeated abuse from every caregiver during his childhood and later turned to drugs to cope, reports Breaking News.
Although he had achieved a long stretch of sobriety, the death of his child triggered a relapse into drug use.
Molloy reportedly had little memory of the incidents and committed the crimes to fund his addiction.
Judge Nolan said that the act of grabbing someone by the neck and threatening to stab them was extremely serious, reports Breaking News.
He also noted that only weeks earlier, he had sentenced Molloy to six and three years for other, similar offences.
At that earlier hearing, the court had been told that Molloy had previously done well while sober and had once saved a prison officer’s life in 2004, reports Breaking News.
At the time of the recent robberies, he had told gardaí he hoped to be shot when pulled from a canal by armed officers.
Judge Nolan acknowledged that Molloy had a difficult early life but said he had since committed multiple terrifying robberies, reports Breaking News.
“He has to suffer an extension of prison,” Judge Nolan said, reports Breaking News.
He imposed a six-year sentence for the Thomas Street Pharmacy robbery, three years for the Tesco incident, and six years for the Brady’s Pharmacy robbery. These are to run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to the previous six-year sentence.
“So that’s a sentence of 12 years for all of your robberies,” Judge Nolan told Molloy, reports Breaking News.
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