A Circuit Court judge has said that criminals who change their plea to guilty only days before their trial were committing "a gross abuse of the jury system" and could not expect sympathy from the courts.
Judge Frank O'Donnell said he wanted the message to go out to all people coming before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that they could not expect to get a lighter sentence if they changed their plea at the last minute.
He said last-minute guilty pleas were now a big problem which was undermining people's confidence in the legal system and would not greatly change the criminal's final sentence.
Judge O'Donnell's comments came during the case of a Dublin youth who changed his plea to a robbery charge five days before his trial. The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a four-year jail sentence for robbing two boys of £9 and a gold ring. The two were held up with a syringe while playing football in Fairview Park, Dublin, last April.
Judge O'Donnell told the youth that any lowering of his sentence for admitting his crime was diluted "as much as possible" by his late admission of guilt.