Eight Years For Off-License Robbery And Assault

A man, who terrorised an elderly off-licence owner and struck him with a hammer, has been given an eight-year sentence.

Judge Martin Nolan said the owner’s age, 70, must have been obvious to the raiders and that striking him with a hammer was a “gross act of violence”.

Derek Brady, who has 78 previous convictions, was on temporary release from a 10-year robbery sentence in Britain when he took part in the raid.

He is currently serving a 2½-year sentence for another crime.

48-year-old Brady of Glenhill Road, Finglas, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery at Bracken’s off-licence in Glasnevin, on November 22 2010.

Brady hit the elderly man with a hammer and later told him: “If you don’t tell me where the rest of the money is, I will open your skull.”

With two accomplices, who were armed with a bat and a knife, he demanded money from the till before locking the man in a store room.

They then dragged the traumatised man back out, threatened him again and demanded to know where the safe was.

Gardaí arrived and struggled with two of the raiders, who escaped through the back of the building.

Brady was arrested nearby but claimed it had all been “a huge mix-up”.

(H)