GUILTY PLEA | Crack addict who shot victim twice in head at close range jailed for 10 years

Sam Archbold pleaded guilty earlier this year to the attempted murder of Andrew O’Brien at Cherrywood Grove, Clondalkin

The case of a crack addict who shot another man twice in the head is a “vivid illustration” of how far things can go wrong when people become “enmeshed in criminality” through taking “so-called recreational drugs”, a judge has noted in passing a ten-year jail sentence on Monday.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the defendant Sam Archbold (37) was under threat after failing to pay back a €2,000 debt.

 

Archbold, with an address at Commons Road, Clondalkin in Dublin 22, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the attempted murder of Andrew O’Brien at Cherrywood Grove, Clondalkin in Dublin 22 on April 8, 2022.

 

Mr O’Brien was hospitalised after suffering two gunshots to the face, which left him with a mouth full of shattered teeth and a hole in his throat.

 

A previous sentencing hearing heard Archbold was a passenger in Mr O’Brien’s car and had arranged to stop off under the pretext of collecting money to pay down a debt.

 

Andrew O’Brien said in his victim impact statement that he was shot in the face at close range while sitting in his car and that all of his teeth on the left side of his mouth were shattered and broken.

He said he has a large burn scar on his face and a hole remains down the side of his throat. “My speech is also affected as a result of my teeth and bone loss. I am forced to eat with the right side of my teeth all the time,” he said.

 

Passing sentence at the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the case was a “particularly vivid” illustration of how far wrong things can go when people become “enmeshed in criminality” through taking “so-called recreational drugs”.

 

He said it remained a “sad fact” that the crime had inflicted permanent damage on Mr O’Brien.

 

Mr Justice Hunt noted that the maximum sentence for attempted murder was life in prison with the lower range attracting a sentence of up to five years, the mid-range five to ten years, the upper range ten to 15 years and the truly egregious cases up to life.

 

Setting a headline sentence of 16 years for the offence, Mr Justice Hunt said he considered the “organised and deliberate” nature of this crime placed it in the “egregious category”.