A city-centre shopkeeper who was threatened with being “bottled” by a man who had previously been barred from the shop, did not wish to make a victim-impact statement but asked that the habitual criminal be permanently barred from the shop when the case came before the local District Court.
Judge Valerie Corcoran heard that on December 22 last, Malachi Fitzmaurice, Graige, Adare, Co Limerick, entered the Centra shop on Foster Street and acted in an angry and aggressive manner towards staff. He was barred from the shop and threatened to bottle the shopkeeper.
It was a very frightening experience for the staff, the Court heard.
The defendant had already received a nine-month prison sentence for trespass and criminal damage to an Airbnb property at 10 Eyre Square, where he had destroyed fire safety equipment and attempted to set alight a CCTV system.
Judge Corcoran said that she had to take into account the defendant’s 98 previous convictions but what was most concerning to her was the threat to bottle an employee in a shop in the city centre. She imposed an additional two-month sentence to the nine months already imposed for the Eyre Square crimes.
