The State should consider introducing a system of compensation payments for the victims of crime, a Circuit Court judge said yesterday as he jailed Trevor O'Callaghan (18), from Ballybeg Park, Waterford, for 3 1/2 years for his involvement in two muggings.
Judge A.G. Murphy said in Cork Circuit Criminal Court that people who suffer physical and psychological injury when crimes are committed against them deserved to be compensated in some way by society.
O'Callaghan pleaded guilty to robbing Mr Michael Twomey of a set of keys and stealing a bank cash card and £3 in cash from Ms Mary Owens on December 30th, 1996.
The court heard that O'Callag han was part of a gang of four who mugged Mr Twomey and Ms Owens in separate incidents at Morrison's Island in Cork on the night in question, though gardai were satisfied his part in both was marginal.
Mr Twomey suffered a broken wrist, a broken nose and cuts to his face and Ms Owens was very distressed by her experience in which she was pinned by the throat and threatened for her bank card number.
Judge Murphy said both were classic cases of mugging and the appropriate sentence for such crimes was six to eight years. However, he had to take a number of factors into account in O'Callaghan's favour.
Among these were the fact that his involvement in the crimes appeared to be minimal, his youth, the fact that he had co-operated fully with the gardai, and that he had also spared the State some difficulty by pleading guilty.