A teenager who was involved in a drugs-related attack on a woman during which boiling water was poured over her has been given a three-year suspended sentence.
Nineteen-year-old Josh Conlon from Meath Place in Dublin boiled the kettle in the woman's home and also beat her partner during the attack after €7,000 of drugs went missing.
Judge Martin Nolan said that although Conlon was involved in the attack, the drug dealer Paul Clarke who was with him that day, was the prime mover.
Twenty-nine-year-old Clarke from Clonard Road in Crumlin was jailed yesterday for four years and three months, while the other drug dealer involved – 38-year-old Craig Kelly from Dowland Road in Walkinstown - was sentenced to five months in prison.
Afterwards, gardaí appealed to other victims of drugs intimidation and violence to come forward and said the case shows that they will pursue those involved and the courts will deal with them.
Josh Conlon was involved in the attack on a woman and her partner in the apartment they shared on the 11 November 2021.
He and Clarke arrived to collect €7,000 worth of cannabis which had been stored there.
When Clarke discovered it had gone missing, he ordered Conlon to boil the kettle and poured boiling water over the woman.
Conlon also hit the woman’s partner.
The court was told that the Garda drugs unit in Dublin’s south inner city knew Josh Conlon from day-to-day searches, and although he has no previous convictions, they believe him to be a lesser figure in the drugs trade in the area.
Judge Nolan said today that while Conlon was involved in a very serious assault, he had a much lesser role and he didn’t think Conlon expected Clarke would scald the victim by pouring boiling water over her.
The judge also said that Conlon was very young, he had no criminal record of convictions, and seems to have distanced himself from the others.
He said it would be unjust to imprison him and sentenced him to three years which he suspended in full on condition that Conlon be of good behaviour, that he remain under the supervision of probation service for a year and obey all the rules.
Detective Superintendent Edward Carroll described the convictions of the three men as significant.
He said there was a victim at the centre of this attack who was intimidated, this was drug-related intimidation, and the victim was supported.
He also said gardaí are focused on the problem, there is an officer nominated in every Garda division nationwide to deal with it, and there are several cases before the courts where people are being prosecuted.
