A man described in court as a “danger to society” has been jailed for four years for stabbing a man seven times over a cigarette lighter.
Patrick Browne of Berryfield Road in Finglas also admitted dressing up as a ghost and a skeleton to rob the same shop twice on Christmas Eve 2013.
When a man standing outside a pharmacy in Phibsboro told Patrick Browne he didn’t have a lighter for him, the 26-year-old responded by punching him and puncturing one of his lungs during a frenzied knife attack.
That was Mar 15th 2013 and later that year, on Christmas Eve, he held up a shop on New Cabra Road dressed as a ghost. He threatened staff with an eight inch knife and made off with €150.
He returned to the same shop that evening. This time dressed as a skeleton with a 12 inch blade that he held to a worker’s throat.
He stole €900 from the till but was arrested a short time later and admitted carrying out the robberies saying he needed the money for drugs.
Today, Judge Martin Nolan said Browne needed to be put behind bars to protect people. He handed down a six year sentence but suspended the final two.
