A LIMERICK drug addict who threatened to shoot a 13-year-old schoolboy during a 20 minute crime spree while on a bender of drugs has been jailed for 18 months.
Clyde Keogh (20) Ballyclough Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick pleaded guilty to robbing and attempting to rob young teens who were on their way to school on January 21 of this year.
Limerick Circuit Court heard that Keogh threatened to stab and shoot the schoolchildren after he had stolen from them while on a bender of drugs.
Keogh hit the headlines earlier this year when he threw a bottle of Coke at a District Court judge after she refused him bail.
During a sentence hearing, Judge Tom O’Donnell recalled evidence that Keogh was caught by a parent of one of the children he robbed from.
The 20-year-old was restrained until Gardaí arrived and arrested him.
Keogh had demanded phones from the children who feared he would stab or shoot them.
However, no weapons were found when he was arrested but questioning had to be suspended until he was sober of all intoxicants.
“He was so drunk he picked up some staples and tried to eat them. He was a physical wreck. In fact, he was in such a ragged state he couldn’t have survived much longer,” the court heard.
Garda Steven Noonan said that the 20-year-old had been abusing drink and drugs since the death of his grandparents.
Keogh, who had several outbursts during previous court hearings including throwing a bottle of coke at a district court judge from the dock, admitted mugging three boys, aged 13, 15, and 18, and of stealing their phones.
Judge O’Donnell said that this was a bizarre case in the extreme where “young school going children who were all targeted leaving them extremely upset and frightened by their respective experiences”.
Keogh was jailed for two years and six months with the last year of the sentence suspended as Judge O’Donnell backdated the commencement of the jail term to the date of the muggings.
