Woman jailed for waving syringe at shop worker and saying she had AIDS

A woman who waved a syringe in front of a shop worker and stated that she had “full-blown AIDS” has been sentenced.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Diane Travers (31) of Nangor Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty to the production of a syringe at Dealz on Lower Liffey Street on October 22, 2018.

She has 114 previous convictions, which include over eighty convictions for public order and failure to appear offences.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Elva Duffy said that this was a “serious matter” but that she could see from the evidence before the court that Travers has made progress since this incident.

Judge Duffy said she must take into account the guilty plea and admissions that Travers made to the gardaí.

The judge said she must also consider that this defendant has significant previous convictions and the impact this incident had on the injured party.

Judge Duffy sentenced Travers to two years and three months in prison and suspended the final fifteen months. Upon her release, she is to remain under the supervision of probation services. Judge Duffy backdated this sentence to when Travers went into custody on this matter.

Garda John Tansey told Karl Moran BL, prosecuting, that Travers entered Dealz on Liffey St in Dublin on the date in question. After a short period of time, a staff member activated a bell system to inform other workers that there was an urgent incident at the front of the shop. Travers was removing health and beauty items from under her jacket.

The court heard that Travers was previously barred from the shop, and while asking her to leave, she became abusive and aggressive towards a male shop worker who had come to the front of the shop to assist. Traves threatened the employee, saying that a man would “get him” and that she would “punch the head of him”. Travers then spat at the shop worker with some spray hitting him on the face.

Gda Tansey said that as the woman walked away, she turned and produced a syringe from her pocket, waving it towards the shop worker.  She said that she had “full-blown AIDS” and said “Don’t make me use this or I will put it in your neck,” referring to the syringe. The woman then walked towards Jervis and the gardaí were alerted.

Travers was identified using the shop’s CCTV and was arrested and interviewed in the months after the incident. She identified herself on CCTV and made some admissions but said she could not remember the day or incident in question due to a long-standing drug addiction.

 A victim impact statement from the shop worker was read to the court by the prosecuting counsel, which said the incident had been “very traumatic” and he had to “wait weeks for test results”.

He described, “I was in a very difficult place, and it put a great deal of stress on my personal life with my partner.”

Gda Tansey agreed with David Perry, BL, defending, that there was nothing in the syringe and that Tansey did not have any transmissible disease.

The garda agreed with counsel that Tansey was homeless at the time, and she informed gardaí that she slept rough as she felt it was safer than sleeping in hostels. She also had a drug addiction.

Mr Perry said that there has been a drastic drop-off in convictions since his client received housing from the Peter McVerry Trust in December 2019, to which the garda agreed.

Counsel handed a letter of apology into the court from Travers and a letter from her case manager.

He said his client had been in and out of State care as a child until the age of sixteen, when she left and lived on the streets from then until 2019.

He asked the court to take into account his client’s guilty plea, the admissions she made to gardaí, her personal circumstances and the progress she has made. He asked the court to be as lenient as possible.