Cork man jailed for four months for robbing Italian tourist's phone

An Italian tourist was robbed of her phone on a visit to Cork city and she said in her victim impact statement that the crime ruined her holiday.

Judge Olann Kelleher said he had to take this into consideration when he was sentencing the man who carried out the robbery.

“He is not concerned at all about visitors to the city. Her holiday was ruined and she will probably never come back here again.

“If you do that (robbery) in the city you will end up in jail,” the judge said.

Tadhg Feehan of 23 Dublin Street, Blackpool, was sentenced to four months in jail after he pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery of the phone from the woman in her mid-twenties.

Sergeant Gearóid Davis said the robbery was carried out on May 12 2018 at Wood Street. The Italian tourist was approached by a man in a car, namely Tadhg Feehan.

“He asked for the time and she took out her phone to check the time. Tadhg Feehan caught her phone and began saying it was his. A struggle ensued and a second man got out of the vehicle.

“But on seeing witnesses coming to help the woman he returned to the vehicle. Feehan then threw the mobile phone on the ground before fleeing the scene in the vehicle.

“Details of the car – a blue Corolla – were circulated and the vehicle was stopped by the Southern Regional dog unit. Both men were arrested and taken to the Bridewell garda station,” Sgt. Davis said.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said, “He admitted the offending but he had difficulty remembering it because he was taking a lot of medication at the time. He had not long beforehand taken medication for depression.

“He is very ashamed of what he did. He is very embarrassed. He knows he put upon a visitor to the city when he should not have done so. He does not know what came over him. He would make a payment of €500. That would be forthcoming in two weeks.” Judge Kelleher said that while he would take into consideration the defendant’s background circumstances he also had to take account of the impact on the young tourist.

The same defendant was fined €500 or five days in prison in default of payment on a drugs charge. That related to October 4, 2017, when Garda Matthew O’Mahony detected a strong smell of cannabis from a car at Kilbarry industrial estate. Feehan was caught with a cannabis cigarette in his possession on that occasion. He pleaded guilty to that offence today.