A 39-year-old Navan mother of six who stole money from a man who was being held at knifepoint by a male accomplice has been jailed at the local circuit court. Martina McDonagh, with an address at Watergate Street, Navan appeared by video link from prison to enter a guilty plea to theft of €20 at Blackcastle Lane in the town on 28 th February last year.
Detective Garda Paul Cullen told the court that at between 2-2.30am on the date in question a Stephen Coleman (who was sentenced for an offence at a previous court) was in company with,Martina McDonagh when Coleman pulled out a kitchen knife and held up another man while McDonagh went through the man’s pockets and took €20 from him. The victim suffered a slash knife wound to his head. There was no victim impact statement available from the victim who withdrew his complaint of assault some time after the incident.
Garda Cullen said that defendant had 171 previous convictions which included 68 for theft, two for handling stolen property, one burglary, one forgery, one for robbery, and three for making off without payment (from fuel stations). A defending barrister said that his client was the mother of six children all of whom were in care. She was someone who had lost her father and a brother in addition to an older sister who had died from cancer. She had been engaged in drug counselling and was now off drugs for the last nine months.
Judge John Martin noted the defendant’s guilty plea and the apology for her behaviour but also acknowledged her efforts to get off drugs which had influenced her behaviour to a large extent. An aggravating factor was the fact that she was on bail when she committed the theft offence. There had been tragic losses within her family. “You haven’t had it easy and that is not lost of me”, the judge said.
The victim of the theft had been “stunned into submission and then you relieved him of €20”, headded. He imposed a sentence of 18 months imprisonment but suspended six months of that.
