Leroy Harris tried to rob a Dublin café with a wine bottle and later robbed a convenience-store till while carrying a broken pint glass. Both attacks happened on 10 March 2025. He admitted attempted robbery, robbery and production of the broken glass; the sentencing court heard that he already had 29 previous convictions.

29Previous convictions reported at sentence.
2 premisesSeparate victims in raids on the same evening.
€396,288Nominal prison-space benchmark for four years of immediate custody.

The convictions

Harris pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempting to rob the Flower and Bean Café on Cork Street. He also entered signed pleas from the District Court for robbery and production of a broken pint glass at the Day Today shop on Bachelor’s Walk.

These were three admitted offences arising from two criminal incidents. The published reports do not identify any acquittal or unresolved charge attached to the sentencing hearing. This file does not extend the convictions beyond the pleas stated in court.

First raid: the café

The café owner was closing when Harris squeezed under the shutters. Harris twice announced a robbery and swung a wine bottle. The owner grabbed his wrist and forced him back outside. The owner’s wife and child were inside, and the court heard that he feared for their safety.

Harris fled. After arrest, Gardaí showed him CCTV and he identified himself and made full admissions.

Second raid: the till

Later that evening, Harris entered the Bachelor’s Walk convenience store carrying a broken pint glass and took a till containing €321. Staff pursued him and recovered the till. The cash, however, was covered in blood and could no longer be used.

A Garda had stopped Harris in the city centre after noticing blood on his hands. When he was uncooperative about the injury, she arrested him out of concern for his welfare. Gardaí subsequently connected him to the robbery.

The €321 is property involved in the offence, not a taxpayer cost. The reports state that the till was recovered but do not quantify replacement cash, business interruption or the victims’ wider losses.

The prior record

The sentencing court heard that Harris had 29 previous convictions covering road-traffic, theft and fraud, public-order and breach-of-bail offences. Defence counsel stressed that he had no earlier convictions for robbery, assault or producing weapons. That distinction is preserved: the record was extensive, but the two robberies represented an escalation into categories not previously recorded against him.

Harris had spent time on remand and was later granted bail. The defence said he remained free of Garda attention while on bail and had stopped using alcohol and drugs. The court accepted that he had not come to Garda attention since the offences.

Sentence and mitigation

Judge Elma Sheahan treated the two raids as separate harms to separate victims and imposed consecutive components amounting to five years. She suspended the final 12 months on strict conditions for a further 12 months, leaving four years of immediate custody.

The judge accepted Harris’s remorse, cooperation, guilty pleas, history of employment and testimonials. The defence described childhood difficulties, mental-health problems that had required inpatient treatment, alcohol misuse and his responsibilities to his children. Harris had acted as a child and later appeared in the television drama Love/Hate; celebrity is biographical context, not an aggravating factor.

Appeal status

The conviction followed guilty pleas, and the located reports do not identify a filed appeal against conviction or sentence. As of 2 August 2026, the five-year sentence with its final year suspended remains the latest published outcome. Absence of a located report is not proof that no procedural filing exists; any later appellate ruling should supersede this record.

Chronology

  • 2019: Harris receives inpatient mental-health treatment, according to mitigation presented at sentence.
  • 10 March 2025: the café attempt and convenience-store robbery occur on the same evening.
  • 22 February 2026: a pre-sentence court report records the pleas.
  • 15 April 2026: Dublin Circuit Criminal Court imposes five years, suspending the final 12 months.
  • 2 August 2026: convictions, sentence and published appeal position are rechecked.

Public-cost boundary

The Irish Prison Service reported an average 2024 cost of €99,072 per available staffed prison space. Applying that system-wide annual figure to the four-year immediate term produces a nominal face-value capacity benchmark of €396,288.

This is not an invoice or an audited marginal cost for Harris. It assumes the full immediate term at one annual rate and does not adjust for remand credit, remission, actual release, later annual costs or utilisation. Garda, prosecution, court, legal-aid, probation, victim and business costs remain unquantified. Property involved in the robbery is not added to this benchmark.

Questions the record leaves open

  1. What conditions accompanied the earlier bail grant, given the prior breach-of-bail convictions?
  2. What treatment or supervision will accompany eventual release?
  3. What were the final losses to the two businesses and the cost of supporting the victims?
  4. What were the investigation, prosecution, legal-aid and custody costs?

Identity and status limits

The court reports identify Leroy Harris and provide a Dublin address. They do not establish his nationality, citizenship, immigration permission or any deportation or removal process. None is inferred. Unrelated overseas court records involving other people with the same name were excluded.

Sources

Record checked: 2 August 2026. Pleas and convictions are separated from pre-sentence reporting; prior convictions are not overstated; no nationality or immigration status is inferred.