Teenagers sentenced for Athlone attacks

A judge has today imposed prison sentences on teenagers involved in separate attacks on a 77-year-old taxi driver and a 74-year-old shopkeeper in Athlone last year.

Cian Quinn, now aged 19, of 38 Ashdale, Clonbrusk, Athlone and Declan Stephens, now 18, of 1 Mountain View Terrace, Armagh Road, Newry, slashed taxi driver Seamus Hogan with knives and stole cash and a gold watch from him during a robbery in his taxi at Bloomfield Drive in the early hours of Tuesday, August 4, 2015.

Then, at 5.30pm on the same date, Mr Stephens and two younger teens, who are now aged 17 and 16, carried out the assault and attempted robbery of Eamon Green at his shop, The Cova, in Arcadia.

The shop had been trading for 67 years but Mr Green was forced to close it for good after the assault and attempted robbery.

At Longford Circuit Court today, Judge Keenan Johnson said Mr Stephens was the “most culpable” of the defendants, as he was the only one involved in both of the shocking incidents.

The 18-year-old was given a five year prison sentence, with two and a half years of the sentence suspended.

Cian Quinn was also sentenced to five years in prison, with two and a half years suspended, for his role in the assault and robbery of Mr Hogan.

The two teens who, along with Mr Stephens, were involved in the incident at The Cova cannot be identified because of their age.

One, who is now 17, assaulted Mr Green during the attack by striking him across the head with a baseball bat, inflicting a wound which bled profusely. He was sentenced to five years in prison with four years suspended.

The court was told that the 17-year-old is due to receive €12,100, arising from the settlement of an injury claim, when he turns 18. Judge Johnson ordered him to pay €10,000 in compensation to Mr Green by March of next year as one of the conditions for the suspension of four years of his sentence.  

The youngest of the defendants, now 16, could not be brought from custody to the court today because of a “health and safety” issue. His sentencing was adjourned to the circuit court in Portlaoise on November 30.

The defendants each had drug habits and said they committed their offences because they needed money to pay for drugs.

Judge Johnson said he was “absolutely satisfied” that the use of illicit drugs was now “a national crisis” which required “urgent and radical attention and action if it is to be successfully tackled.”

“The national drugs epidemic is a cancer that is eating away at the heart of Irish society,” he said.

The judge took “no pleasure whatsoever” in incarcerating Mr Stephens, Mr Quinn and the 17-year-old, but he said that “because of the gravity of these offences I was left with no option.”

* For full report and reaction, see next week’s Westmeath Independent