A 26-year-old Dublin man has been sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in an attempted raid on a cash-in-transit van, during which an accomplice was shot dead.
Keith Murtagh of Mariners Port, Sheriff Street Lower, Dublin, had previously pleaded guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery and possession of a weapon with intent to endanger life at Foxborough Road, Lucan on 15 May 2009.
During the attempted robbery, armed gardaí, who had been monitoring the men before they held up the van, shot dead 27-year-old Garrett Molloy.
Judge Katherine Delahunt sentenced Murtagh to eight years in jail for the possession of a firearm and a further ten years for the attempted robbery.
However, she suspended the final two years of the ten-year sentence, provided Murtagh enters into a bond of good behaviour and engages with the Probation Service.
Murtagh has 42 previous convictions, 24 of which are for road traffic offences, five for failure to appear in court, while the remainder are for criminal damage, public order offences and theft.
He had been sentenced to three years in prison by the Circuit Criminal Court in 2006.
In deciding the sentence, Judge Delahunt said she was taking into account factors such as Murtagh's guilty plea, his age and the fact he had shown remorse.
She said he had no other firearms offences on his record and was not carrying the gun.
The judge also said she had heard evidence that he had not planned the robbery and that his involvement was at the lower level.
Judge Delahunt said she had considered reports about his family background and the fact that he had left school early but had done well on a number of programmes he had engaged in since.
She said she also noted that Murtagh was suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his involvement in the crimes.
But she said the crimes ranked about as serious as it gets in the Circuit Criminal Court, the intention was robbery, he and his friend had a sawn-off shotgun and the incident involved a gun fight where the first shot was fired by his colleague.
Judge Delahunt said there was no greater terror involved in the job of a cash-in-transit security worker than to look down the barrel of a sawn-off shotgun.
While there had been no victim impact statement lodged, she said, she was in no doubt that the fear the security company employee had suffered was horrendous.
She ordered that the sentence should begin from the time Murtagh was first taken into custody following his release from hospital in June 2009.
The 26-year-old was also shot during the attempted raid, and suffered serious injuries and disfigurement.
After the sentence was handed down and before he was taken from the court room, Murtagh thanked the judge for the sentence and shouted: ‘Guards, I'm still alive.’
Four other men have also been charged in connection with the same crime.
