A 28-year-old man who took a six-year-old child from outside a Dublin city centre shop has been sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to false imprisonment.
The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that David Ryan was severely intoxicated, homeless and on bail when he wheeled the child, who has special needs, away from the shop on Liffey Street in June 2015 after his father had left him outside in his buggy.
The child had been to Burger King with his father following a hospital visit.
He had left him facing in towards the door of another shop while he ate his food and his father went into the shop momentarily. When he came out he could not see his son and rang gardaí.
Prosecuting lawyers told the court that Ryan was seen by a woman who noticed he was "out of it" and saw him leave the child outside Arnotts department store.
The woman alerted security staff and gardaí were called.
The boy and his father were reunited before gardaí arrived, the court heard. He was away from his father for 10-15 minutes in total.
Ryan was arrested after a garda saw him walking back down the street and noticed he fitted the description from CCTV.
He has 112 previous convictions for mainly minor offences.
Defence counsel Sean Gillane told the court the offence was "every parents' worst nightmare" and the 10 to 15 minutes must have felt like an eternity to the boy's father.
He said his client recognised the seriousness of the offence and was acutely aware of this and deeply ashamed.
He said Ryan was utterly oblivious to panic he caused on the day and had taken the child's chicken nuggets from him and walked away.
When he was shown CCTV footage he at first said he hoped it was not him and then "quite sadly said he was sorry if it was him".
He said if any solace could be taken from the situation it was that the boy was never out of sight during the whole incident.
Mr Gillane said Ryan has a difficult past and had been in care and had severe addiction problems. He was homeless at the time of the offence and had been drinking all day.
He had written a letter with an explicit apology for the hurt caused to the victim and his family.
The court heard that after the event the child became upset in school the following day but otherwise there was no lasting effect on the child or his parents although it was a traumatic event.
Judge Melanie Greally said Ryan was someone with a significant number of previous convictions involving anti-social, drunken and abusive behaviour.
She said she had looked at the victim impact statement and it appeared the consequences of his actions had not been severe for the boy himself although his parents were shocked and fearful at the time.
Judge Greally said a probation report offered her little in terms of options as the probation service did not feel they could get a positive response from him in the community.
The judge took into account the guilty plea, his severe addiction and other problems and his remorse.
She sentenced him to three years in prison and backdated the sentence to July 2015.
