Five years for man ‘abandoned’ by accomplices during armed robbery

An armed post officer raider who was left behind at the scene when his two accomplices fled has been jailed for five years.

Keith Deegan (33) had armed himself with a tow bar which he wrapped in a towel before he and two others entered a shop in Kilbarrack, Dublin.

The masked men began smashing the glass screen separating staff from customers in order to gain access to the cash.

One witness, a customer in the shop, said he decided against tackling Deegan because he thought what he was holding could be a gun.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that two female staff members began screaming and then crawled across a broken glass on the floor to get away from the robbers and to the safety of a back office.

When the postmaster came out to the front he saw that security staff were holding down a man who had a bag of cash. Garda David Heraghty told the court this was Deegan, with an address of Buttercup Green, Darndale.

He said a total of €12,160 was taken by the raiders. Deegan was found with €6,463 but the two other men made off with just under €6,000, which has never been recovered Two other men were subsequently arrested and a file is currently with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Guilty plea

Deegan pleaded guilty to robbery and false imprisonment at Kilbarrack Post Office on October 24th, 2019. He also admitted criminal damage of the security glass and allowing himself to be carried in the stolen car which the raiders used to get to the post office. His 42 previous convictions include two for robbery and others for drug offences.

Luigi Rea BL, defending, said Deegan’s long-term drug addiction was the reason for his offending and “he knows he needs to do something about [it]”.

He said Deegan was “left behind by people who were better friends to each other than they were to him and he was abandoned at the scene”.

Judge Pauline Codd said Deegan took part in the robbery mindless of the utter destruction it would have on people getting on with their daily lives.

She set a headline sentence of eight years but reduced it after taking into consideration his guilty pleas, his co-operation with gardaí and his long history of drug addiction.

She also noted that his three young children will be without a father because of his actions. She sentenced him to six years but suspended the final year on condition that he go into residential drug treatment for a year on his release.