Sunday, February 01, 2009

Irish backpacker held up Australian agency to feed pet fish

An Irish backpacker armed with a pet fish in a container tried to rob a Brisbane ticketing agency saying he needed the money to feed the fish, a court heard. Judge Milton Griffin, SC, in the Brisbane District Court, was told Richard William O'Flynn, 25, also tried to hold-up a bakery after having earlier tried to order a "gay wedding cake" for him and his male partner.

The court was told O'Flynn used a "decorative cake knife" to menace a female employee of Deliberately Delicious by Amanda, at Paddington, on September 28 last year. O'Flynn, a carpenter on a two-year working holiday around Australia, pleaded guilty to a series of bizarre offences committed between April 2007 and November 2008.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of wilful damage, attempted armed robbery, attempted stealing and using a telephone carriageway to make threats. Prosecutor Jody-Ann Thomas said the most outrageous offence resulted in O'Flynn passing a note to a Brisbane Ticketek employee which read: "Give me all the f***ing money from the till."

Ms Thomas said the employee told him there was no money. The court was told O'Flynn returned several minutes later holding a water-filled container with a live fish inside. "(O'Flynn) told the attendant he needed the money to feed the fish," the court was told.

O'Flynn was jailed for 12 months but released immediately on the condition he return to Ireland at the weekend.

Judge Griffin, in sentencing O'Flynn, said the community would be pleased to see the back of him as he left Australia.

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