Mugger jailed for vicious attack

A mugger was jailed for four years – with the final year suspended – for his role in the assault and robbery of a man who had been trying to sell his iPhone on Done Deal.

Joe Mwangi (22), with a former address at An Lochan, Cluan Riocard, Headford Road, and more recently at Cluain Fada, Headford Road, Galway, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court to the robbery of a German man’s iPhone and wallet at Newcastle Road, Galway, on June 6, 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to the attempted theft of money from the man’s bank account by attempting to use his bank card at Joyce’s supermarket a short time later.

Sergeant Tom Doyle told the sentence hearing the 26-year-old German was working in Galway at the time but has since moved to Prague and did not want to come back to give evidence to the court.

He said Mwangi, who was 19 at the time, set up a meeting with the victim after seeing his advert on Done Deal for the sale of his iPhone.

The man agreed to meet him outside Newcastle Stores, but he later told Sgt. Doyle he got a bad feeling when he saw Mwangi and a 17-year-old juvenile waiting for him, quickly realising they didn’t have any money to buy the phone.

He refused to hand over the phone to Mwangi and went into the store, hoping they would leave the area.

He emerged from the store a short time later and began walking up Newcastle Road.

He spotted two youths watching him from the filling station across the road and noticed Mwangi and the juvenile sitting on a wall on his side of the road ahead of him.

He was attacked from behind as he approached Mwangi and knocked to the ground by the two youths from across the road.

All four then kicked and punched the man in the head and body before making off with his iPhone and wallet.  He sustained a black eye and bruising to his body.

Sgt. Doyle viewed CCTV footage from the Newcastle store and also from Joyce’s supermarket, both of which clearly showed Mwangi, who was known to Gardaí.

Mwangi denied any involvement in the mugging at first.  He then tried to minimise his involvement by claiming he had come on the man as he was being robbed and went to protect him.  He said he saw the wallet on the ground and just took it.

Sgt. Doyle said the victim confirmed Mwangi had assaulted him during the robbery.

Mwangi, the court heard, had thirteen previous convictions for possession of drugs, public order incidents, thefts and for failing to appear in court.

He served two months in prison earlier this year for non-payment of fines.

Sgt. Doyle said Mwangi’s mother, who was in court, complained to him when he called to their home in Cluain Riocard in 2016 that her son had moved out and was keeping bad company.

Defence barrister, Ferdia Breathnach, said his client had spared the victim from having to come to court by pleading to the charges.

He said Mwangi had written a letter of apology to the victim and while there had been four youths involved, his client was the only one brought before the court.

Sgt. Doyle disagreed, confirming the 17-year-old juvenile, who could not be identified, had been convicted in the District Court.

Pointing to the findings of a negative probation report on Mwangi, Judge Rory McCabe said he had shown little insight or remorse for the robbery when interviewed by a probation officer and was deemed to still be at a high risk of reoffending.

He sentenced Mwangi to four years in prison for the robbery and imposed a concurrent two-year sentence for the attempted theft from the man’s bank account.

He suspended the final year of the robbery sentence for five years, on condition he be of good behaviour and not reoffend on his release, to incentivise Mwangi and to act, he said, as an ongoing deterrent.