CITY TRIBUNE
Teen mugger jailed for stab attack on student
A knife-wielding mugger who stabbed a young student in the abdomen while trying to rob his phone, has been sentenced to six years in prison with the final year suspended.
The accused, who cannot be named because he was a 17-year-old juvenile at the time the offence was committed, received lesser sentences at Galway Circuit Criminal Court for four other random attacks on people at various locations around the city in the early hours of September 6, 2015.
He pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last January to eight charges relating to the possession of a knife, threats to kill, robberies, attempted robberies, causing serious injury and assault causing harm.
Detective Marie Conneely told his sentence hearing last Friday week he refused to co-operate and answer any questions put to him during five interviews in April 2016 and maintained his innocence at all times.
He did admit having the knife, claiming he had taken it from a friend’s house before leaving a party but would not give this friend’s name or address.
Gardai doubted his story about being at a house party at all that night.
A senior barrister, who represented the accused under the Free Legal Aid Scheme, said his client had told him he took cocaine before leaving a party that night and while that was no excuse for his client’s violent behaviour it was being proffered as an explanation, he added.
The first attack occurred at 2.10am when the accused followed and threatened to stab a primary school teacher walking home to Dún na Coiribe on the Headford road.
The teacher turned and faced down the accused and he ran away in the direction of Woodquay.
Moments later a 18-year-old student was stabbed in the abdomen, face and hand as he tried to fend off the accused at Woodquay.
The accused had asked to use his mobile phone and had then slashed him across the face and stabbed him in the stomach and hand when he refused to hand it over.
He underwent emergency lifesaving surgery that night for a laceration to his liver and later had to have surgery to his left hand for defensive wounds sustained during the attack. He had been left with permanent scarring to his face, hand and abdomen.
The accused left his victim lying in a pool of blood and ran towards Bothar Irwin where he threatened a couple with the knife.
They later told Gardai they ran for their lives towards Eyre Square.
Around the same time, two tourists rang Galway Garda Station to report they had been walking along the Headford Road earlier when they were accosted by a male who robbed them of their mobile phones and a wallet at knifepoint.
Det Conneely said the fifth and final incident occurred on Market Street at 2.40am when a man was stabbed several times in the left arm as his attacker tried to snatch his wallet from his hand.
The accused was arrested a few minutes later in Eyre Square where the teacher identified him to Gardai.
He put up a violent struggle and had to be pepper-sprayed and then tasered before Gardai could effect an arrest.
Two mobile phones fell from his clothing during the struggle while the knife he had used was found concealed in his sleeve.
He gave a false name on two occasions, remained aggressive towards Gardai at the Garda Station and was deemed unfit by a doctor to be interviewed until the next day.
Judge McCabe said he needed time to consider psychological and probation reports which were handed into court and he adjourned sentence for one week to last week’s court.
Judge McCabe said the psychologist had found no mental disorder which might explain the accused man’s behaviour on the night.
A probation report was worrying too, he said, because it placed the accused at a high risk of reoffending and expressed concern about his previous and current propensity towards violence.
It stated the accused had latent anger-management issues and attributed alcohol and drug use as contributing factors to his violent tendencies.
Judge McCabe said it was sad to have to send a young man to prison at a time in his life when he should be pursuing his education but the interests of justice could only be served, he said, by a custodial sentence given the violence involved in the attacks that night.
He said the knife attack on the young man at Woodquay was the most serious offence and he sentenced the accused to six years in prison for that with the final year suspended for four years.
He imposed concurrent, four-year and three-year sentences for the remaining offences with the final year suspended in each case for four years on condition the accused come under the supervision of the probation service on his release from prison for 12 months, be of good behaviour and not reoffend, and inform the probation service of any change of address.
The sentences were backdated to last October when the accused was first taken into custody.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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