Two local women plead guilty to robbing visitor
Caffe 500 where Ms Keating admitted to burglary Photo: Michael O'Rourke
TWO defendants described as “chronic heroine and crack cocaine users” pleaded guilty last week to robbing a visitor to Carlow of €400 after he asked them for directions while the second defendant also pleaded guilty to burgling a restaurant in Carlow town.
Rhiannon Keating, 30 St Killian’s Crescent, Carlow and Geeta O’Neill, 16 Burrin Street, Carlow both pleaded guilty to a count of robbery on 27 April this year at the Ferrybank Apartments, Leighlin Road, Carlow while Ms Keating admitted to producing an article, namely a knife, capable of inflicting serious injury during the incident. She further pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary at Caffe 500, Kennedy Street, Carlow.
Detective Garda Kieran Shields told Judge Eugene O’Kelly that the pair were “chronic heroine and crack cocaine users” and that “everything bad comes from the drugs” when he presented their cases in Carlow Circuit Court last week.
He said that gardaí were alerted to a stabbing incident and that while they were out looking for Ms Keating (38) and Ms O’Neill (42), the former was breaking into Caffe 500 and stealing items such as money and alcohol from it over the course of eight hours.
Gda Shields explained that a visitor to the town had approached the pair on Kennedy Avenue, Carlow, looking for directions to a casino on 27 April and that they brought him to the Ferrybank Apartments where CCTV footage showed the three of them in a corridor and Ms Keating lunging forward to him.
Gda Shields showed CCTV footage in court where the injured party was seen with blood on the back of his shirt. He appeared to be disorientated and found it difficult to find his way out of the apartment block because “it was like a maze”, said Gda Sheilds. The footage also shows Ms O’Neill with a wallet in her hands and dividing money up between her and Ms Keating.
Gda Shields told the court that they received a call about Ms Keating because she was seen with blood on her coat and €100 in her hands.
In relation to the burglary at Caffe 500, Gda Sheilds said that Ms Keating was caught on camera entering and leaving the premises three times over the course of several hours and that she took €1,000 in cash, €800 in stock such as alcohol and a cash register which the gardaí found at an address where she was staying. She and a male co-accused were arrested in relation to that incident.
Prosecutor Miranda Egan Langley said that when Ms Keating was shown the CCTV footage at Caffe 500, she said: “Jaysus, look at the size of me”, this identifying herself.
The court heard that when questioned about the robbery of the man in the Ferrybank Apartments, she said that she was acting in self-defence.
Gda Shields said that Ms O’Neill told the gardaí where they had left the wallet but that there was no money in it when they found it. He said that Ms O’Neill had 31 previous convictions including drug and knife possession and that she was currently serving a custodial sentence. He continued that Ms Keating was also serving a sentence and that she had 207 previous convictions including drug possession, burglary, trespass, thefts and serious assault.
When asked about a victim impact statement from the man who was stabbed, Gda Shields said that he told him that “he never wanted to see Carlow again” and that he did not want to make a victim impact statement about what had happened to him.
Tara Geoghegan BL for Ms Keating said that the burglary of Caffe 500 was more “opportunistic” than planned because she had been staying just yards away from the restaurant and that she had spent eight hours coming and going in and out of the premises, taking things out of it.
John Madden BL for Ms O’Neill said that his client did not physically harm the injured party in the Ferrybank incident, that she hadn’t realised that he’d been stabbed until she saw the blood on his shirt and that she wasn’t “a violent person”.
However, Judge O’Neill didn’t accept that submission, saying it was a “joint enterprise” between the duo, that they didn’t have any connection to the Ferrybank Apartments so they deliberately brought the injured party there and that Ms O’Neill was seen divvying up the money on CCTV.
He then sentenced Ms O’Neill to three years and nine months’ imprisonment, suspending the final nine months for nine months after which she must comply fully with the probation services.
Ms Keating will be sentenced on 27 November.
