Four-and-a-half years in prison for Carlow woman who robbed visitor and burgled local restaurant 

A WOMAN who robbed a visitor to Carlow after he stopped to ask directions was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment without suspension by Judge Eugene O’Kelly at last week’s sitting of Carlow Circuit Court. Rhianna Keating of 30 St Killian’s Crescent, Carlow had also admitted the burglary of Caffe 500 in Carlow town.

Ms Keating pleaded guilty to one count of robbery on 27 April this year at the Ferrybank Apartments, Leighlin Road, Carlow, alongside Geeta O’Neill, who was sentenced last week. Ms Keating admitted to producing an article, namely a knife, capable of inflicting serious injury during the incident.

She additionally pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary at Caffe 500, Kennedy Street, Carlow later that evening.

The court heard that Ms Keating had 207 previous convictions, 61 of which were for theft, two for burglary, ten for deception, two for possession of a knife, and one for assault. She had been released from prison just ten days before the incident and was on two suspended sentences.

Tara Geoghegan BL, defending, said her 37-year-old client “had a tragic background” and had begun using heroin at the age of 15 due to her relationship with an older man who had “a negative impact on her life”. She said Ms Keating had “great difficulty achieving prolonged periods of sobriety” and did not complete the period of residential treatment offered to her in the early 2000s. 

However, her client had since “applied herself” and was attending counselling for her addiction.

Detective Garda Kieran Shields accepted that Ms Keating was heavily intoxicated on the days leading up to the offence and said the defendant was “very well known to him”.

“The background to all of this is substance abuse,” he said in his evidence to the court.

Ms Geoghegan brought the court’s attention to a violent incident that occurred when Ms Keating was in her 20s, which she claimed was the reason for her client’s decline in mental health. 

However, Judge O’Kelly responded saying it was “ironic” then that “she tricked and lured a victim who had asked for directions into a stairwell and proceeded to stab him”, considering the same thing had happened to her 15 years ago.

Judge O’Kelly further noted that Ms Keating had deliberately tried to frustrate the investigation by blaming her co-accused, Geeta O’Neill.

He set a headline sentence for the robbery at six years and reduced it to four years and six months. He set the headline sentence for the burglary of Caffe 500 at three years and reduced it to two years and three months.

Judge O’Kelly said it was open to the court to make the sentences consecutive due to the fact that the two offences were only connected temporally. However, he decided to run them concurrently due to the defendant’s intoxication while committing them.

He was not satisfied with the evidence given as to her rehabilitation and was dismayed by the abuse of her previous suspended sentences. Accordingly, he refused to suspend any portion of the sentences.