A man who is dying from AIDS has been remanded in custody for sentence after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attacking an 83-year-old woman.
James Kavanagh (36) knocked the woman down and grabbed her handbag, but she cornered him in his getaway car and shouted for help until two men came to her assistance.
Kavanagh then ran off after a struggle with the men and stole a bicycle from another woman at a telephone kiosk. However, he was followed by one of the men and was then apprehended while cycling through Sandymount by gardai who had been alerted by the second man.
Kavanagh, of Meath Place, The Liberties, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting and robbing the women on July 19th, 1996, at Sandymount. He has 38 previous convictions.
Judge Frank O'Donnell remanded him in custody for sentence on February 26th. He is at present serving a 22-month sentence and is also due for sentence in Cork on another robbery charge on February 2nd.
Mr Michael O'Higgins, defending, said his client was so seriously ill as a result of AIDS that the case had been adjourned many times. He was the eldest of 11 children, and only two of them had been in trouble. Both his parents were decent, hard-working people.
Kavanagh's mother told the court her son had not much longer to live but was looking better now due to a drug which put off death for some months. He was first diagnosed HIV-positive in 1983 and his girlfriend also had a drug problem. She said she was shocked when told of his attack on the old woman as at home he was gentle and helpful.
Sgt James Madden told Ms Isobel Kennedy, prosecuting, that of the two women Kavanagh had robbed on that day the older had recovered best.
He said the old woman was hit so hard from behind that she fell on her face on the pavement.