{"id":397468,"date":"2026-04-14T06:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397468\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:10:13","slug":"pair-jailed-for-vicious-dublin-city-centre-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/397468\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair jailed for vicious Dublin city centre robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man and woman who kept their victim with them for an hour before launching a sustained attack at Hatch Street in Dublin 2\u00a0and robbing him of his phone and wallet have been jailed for seven and a half years.<\/p>\n

Conor Manning (30) picked up the victim and threw him headfirst into Luas tracks during the assault. He also sat on top of him at one point and attempted to strangle him after the victim was dragged off a main street into a nearby laneway.<\/p>\n

At the end of the assault, Manning offered the man his hand, in what appeared to be an attempt to help him to his feet, before he drove him headfirst into a wall.<\/p>\n

Garda Eoin O’Connor told Jane Horgan-Jones, prosecuting, that the victim was first approached by Manning and his co-accused Jackie McElhaton (50). McElhaton has a total of 309 previous convictions and was on bail for multiple crimes at the time of the robbery.<\/p>\n

He was asked for money for a hostel, and when he refused, McElhaton struck him on the back of the head with a glass bottle. She took his mobile phone from him but Manning returned the phone to the victim.<\/p>\n

The man was then forced to walk with the pair and was made to stay with them for an hour before Manning began the second attack.<\/p>\n

McElhaton stamped, kicked and punched the man during this assault, which lasted about six minutes.<\/p>\n

O’Connor told Horgan-Jones that the victim lost consciousness a number of times. He was ultimately helped by security staff nearby after Manning and McElhaton robbed his phone and wallet and fled the scene.<\/p>\n

An ambulance was called for the man, but he declined to go to hospital. He went in for treatment two days later.<\/p>\n

Manning, of Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, and McElhaton of Gardiner Street, Dublin 1, both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of the man on Hatch Street, Dublin 2 on April 12th, 2025.<\/p>\n

Separately, McElhaton also pleaded guilty to an earlier robbery on November 4th, 2024 during which she robbed a woman of her wallet as the victim was about to go into her apartment.<\/p>\n

The victim followed McElhaton a short time later and got her wallet back from her but the cash that had been in it was missing.<\/p>\n

McElhaton received a consecutive one year jail term for the November robbery, meaning that she received a total sentence of eight and half years.<\/p>\n

Both Manning and McElhaton were identified by garda\u00ed after they viewed CCTV footage of the attack.<\/p>\n

McElhaton has 309 previous convictions from 2000 to 2026, including robbery, attempted robbery, assaulting a police officer, violent behaviour in a garda station, public order, theft and fraud.<\/p>\n

Manning has 56 previous convictions for offences including robbery, assault causing harm, theft and fraud, public order, drug offences and criminal damage.<\/p>\n

Victim impact statement<\/p>\n

The victim read his victim impact statement into the record. He said it was a deeply distressing and frightening experience which took a \u201csinister turn\u201d following a request for cash.<\/p>\n

He said from the moment his phone was taken he felt \u201ccompletely vulnerable and afraid\u201d. He said he felt if he got to a location with the robbers where he was visible and there would be CCTV cameras, he would be safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not have been more wrong,\u201d he said before he described having his head slammed against concrete and stone and being subjected to punches and kicks.<\/p>\n

He said he was then dragged to a more secluded spot where he received further kicks and punches. He described the attack continuing even after the pair had robbed him of his phone and wallet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fear, pain and humiliation that caused me is something I continue to struggle with to this day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The man described feeling pain \u201call over\u201d. His teeth were chipped, and he was \u201cmortified and tired\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to go home and sleep \u2013 it took two days to realise what had happened to me,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

He spent 24 hours in accident and emergency when he eventually went to hospital to rule out the potential that he could have brain bleeds.<\/p>\n

He said he has tried to forget the assault, but he finds himself being hyper-vigilant and overwhelmed by loud noises. His sleep has also been impacted, and he has \u201ca general sense of unease\u201d.<\/p>\n

The man described it as \u201can unprovoked assault and robbery\u201d during which the level of violence escalated.<\/p>\n

He has experienced anxiety, disturbed sleep and a loss of confidence as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense of independence and overall safety has been impacted,\u201d concluded the man.<\/p>\n

Judge Martin Nolan said the victim was on his way home \u201cminding his own business\u201d when he was accosted by Manning and McElhaton.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe struck him with a bottle,\u201d Judge Nolan said before the man was detained \u201cattacked savagely, dragged along the ground, kicked to his body and slammed into a wall\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very hard to know why they attacked him in this way \u2013 for some reason they wanted to detain him and then savagely attacked him,\u201d Judge Nolan said, remarking that it was \u201cgratuitous violence\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Grocery<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Grocery thief attacked Dublin supermarket staff with syringe, claiming he had HIV<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Judge Nolan acknowledged that neither Manning nor McElhaton had \u201ca good start in life\u201d but he said they understand the difference between right and wrong.<\/p>\n

He said they are lucky the victim did not sustain more serious injuries and accepted that while they both had a significant history of previous convictions, there was nothing in their record to suggest that they would have previously involved themselves in this level of violence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of a pilot project BreakingNews.ie has used AI to suggest headline options for this article. The final headline was chosen and edited by BreakingNews.ie journalists.\u00a0Find out more<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man and woman who kept their victim with them for an hour before launching a sustained attack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-397468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}