Friday, March 7, 2014
‘It’s beside Dublin’s most genius street name: Avenue Road.’
WIN! Boosh star gig VIP tickets »p15
Bachelors’ scenes Movies »p13
Teens’ terror at knife threat
A DRUG addict who used a boxcutter blade to rob three schoolchildren of their smartphones has received a five-year prison sentence. Robert Kinlan, 27, was on bail on the evening of April 23, 2013, when he encountered the young teenagers walking home. He told them to stand up against a wall and threatened to cut them with the blade if they didn’t hand over their phones. The youngest victim, a then 14year-old girl, began to shake with fear and was close to tears. She told gardaí afterwards that she was never as scared in her life and she is still undergoing counselling sessions. A second victim, then 16, said there isn’t a day goes by that he doesn’t think about the robbery. Kinlan, of Ballygall Parade, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery
by Fiona Ferguson
and attempted robbery at Glasaree Road and Finglas Place, both in Finglas. He was charged with production of an offensive weapon relating to the robberies and these charges were taken into consideration. His 40 previous convictions include five robberies, two of attempted robbery and two thefts. In 2013 he received a four-year prison sentence for another robbery offence. Judge Mary Ellen Ring said young people who have high value phones are now a vulnerable target for people like Kinlan and the court cannot overlook that. She said despite evidence that Kinlan was intoxicated, he was ‘cute enough’ to ask the victims to take the batteries and SIM cards out of their phones so he would not be tracked and followed.
He asked victims to take SIMs out
UKRAINE COUNT ON ME: Former world heavyweight boxing champion turned politician Vitali Klitschko shakes hands with Irish boxer turned Fine Gael local election candidate Kenneth Egan at the Convention Centre. Klitschko was in Dublin along with interim Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and freed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko as the centre right European People’s Party held day one of its two-day congress. Docklands traffic was chaotic for most of the day as delegates and proUkrainian protesters gathered, and there were later three arrests after anti-austerity protesters and gardaí clashed. Ukraine: P5 PA
Any bus stop that’s near a place you find interesting, useful or fun can be a Hot-Stop. It could be the stop beside your favourite cinema or the one near the field where your Aunty Margaret once found twenty two quid fifty. Tell Noel about your Hot-Stops and you could win an iPhone 5. But hurry – the competition must end on March 18th at midnight. To enter, go to dublinbus.ie/networknoel Keep Dublin tidy – Please recycle this Metro Herald when you are finished with it