A man has today been sentenced to eight years for a post office robbery during which a customer had a knife held to her neck while the raiders demanded cash.
Ian Quinn’s accomplice held the blade to the throat of a woman collecting her social welfare and threatened to ‘slit’ her if the postmaster didn’t hand over all the money.
Both men then fled but were caught nearby after a chase involving the garda helicopter.
Quinn (aged 30) was given a 10-year sentence in 2002 for his role in an attempted bank robbery in Abbeyleix during which Garda Sergeant Sean Eiffe was fatally shot by other gardaí. Quinn robbed the post office several months after his release.
Quinn took the stand and told the court he has spent most of his teens and 20s in prison and has become institutionalised. He said he was unable to cope outside prison and had become addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and crystal meth.
“I’ve never been given any help, I’ve never been given a chance,” he told Judge Patrica Ryan. “I need treatment.”
His mother, Ms Rosemary Quinn, told the court her son had to beg for drug treatment and had been released onto the street from prison with no treatment or training.
“He’s destroyed,” she told the judge. “I’m asking your lordship, as his mother, for a court order to help him get treatment.”
Judge Ryan said she had to impose a significant sentence because of Quinn’s serious previous convictions. She sentenced him to eight years with the final three suspended for three years.
Quinn of New Seskin, Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery at Firhouse Post Office, Firhouse Shopping Centre on January 22, 2010. His accomplice was not before the court.
He has 32 previous convictions for offences such as car theft, larceny and drug possession and is currently serving a six-month term due to expire in October.
Garda Christopher O’Leary told prosecuting counsel, Mr James Dwyer BL, that Quinn and his co-accused, who was not before the court, entered the post office with their faces covered.
A woman who was collecting her social welfare cheque was grabbed from behind by Quinn’s accomplice who held a knife to her throat. He told the postmaster to “hand over the fucking money or I’ll slit her”.
He demanded the €50 notes first then the €20 notes. The postmaster handed over all the cash as he was ‘terrified’ they would cut her throat. The raiders took another €150, which someone had put on the counter to pay for a TV license, before the fled. They stole €2,810 in total.
Several witnesses followed the men as they fled the area and saw them escape in a blue Mercedes. The garda helicopter followed the car and saw it pull up outside a house where two males and a female get out.
The men entered the house and escaped out the back, climbing over a wall into a lane. The air unit spotted them discarding objects along the lane before gardaí on the ground caught up with them.
Gda O’Leary caught Quinn after he climbed another wall into a back garden. He was arrested and interviewed five times but denied having any part in the raid.
He said he had been in the laneway looking for his dog and was arrested while he was in his mother’s garden. He later entered an early guilty plea.
A victim impact report on behalf of the postmaster said he has been robbed 12 times over twenty years. It stated he was very nervous in the weeks after the raid.
The woman who was held hostage stated she does not leave the house anymore and is very nervous when she’s home alone.
Defence counsel, Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, said Quinn was addressing his drug problems and has been trying to get into a treatment programme.
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