Teenager given two-year sentence for throwing petrol bomb at patrol car
A talented sportsman with a promising future who turned to drink and drugs after dropping out of school has been given a two-year sentence for throwing a petrol bomb at a Garda patrol car two years ago.
Gary O'Sullivan (aged 19) has since accrued six further convictions for offences such as criminal damage, careless and drunken driving and trespass, but is now attempting to deal with his substance abuse problems.
O'Sullivan, of St John's Avenue, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to throwing a petrol bomb at a Garda patrol car at St John's Drive on September 19, 2006.
Mrs Anne O'Sullivan told defence counsel Mr Sean Gillane BL that her son had been a talented sportsman, who had a trial for the Leinster rugby team, before "dropping out" of school in fifth year. She said she noticed a change in him but "did not recognise the road he was going down".
Judge Katherine Delahunt noted O'Sullivan's "respectable" family background and that he had fallen into "bad company". She imposed a two-year sentence and suspended the final year on strict conditions.
Garda Niall Rigney told Mr Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that he and a colleague on duty in a patrol car responded to a call about a number of youths loitering in St Johns Drive and asked them to move on.
O'Sullivan told the gardaí to "f*** off" but his friends moved him back from the patrol car.
Garda Rigney said they returned to the area about 10 minutes later to check the group had moved on and while stopped at a junction observed O'Sullivan walking towards them with a bottle in his hand.
When O'Sullivan saw the patrol car he ran away and was pursued into a cul de sac where he ran through bollards and stood behind a gate. Gardaí saw him hold the bottle at chest height, light a wick and throw it towards them.
Garda Rigney said that, only for the quick thinking of his colleague, who immediately reversed the car, it was "quite possible" that the petrol bomb would have hit them. It hit the ground and exploded about five feet away.
Garda Rigney said they knew where O'Sullivan lived and arrested him shortly afterwards at his mother's house.
Mrs O'Sullivan told Mr Gillane that her son had recently completed a residential drug-treatment program, had the support of family and friends and was working full-time.
Mr Gillane said O'Sullivan come from a "respectable family" and had been "heading in the right direction in life" up to the time he left school.
He said O'Sullivan began "hanging around with a group of individuals up to no good in the Clondalkin area" and developed an alcohol and cocaine problem.
Mr Gillane said it was difficult to explain how some one of O'Sullivan's background could find himself before the Circuit Court facing such a charge but submitted "it speaks of the pernicious effect of alcohol and cocaine".
