11 years for robber who left shopkeeper with life-changing injuries after hammer attack

A man has been sentenced to eleven years imprisonment following a hammer attack on a shopkeeper in Dublin in March 2017. John McKeon, aged 31 and with an address in Strokestown, County Longford, was convicted by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of robbery, attempted robbery and assault causing serious harm. He and his cousin targeted Tansey's Newsagent on Fitzmaurice Road, Finglas, where McKeon struck the shopkeeper three times to the head with a claw hammer, causing severe traumatic brain injury. The victim, who remains in recovery, was the sole carer for his blind wife and three children. Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a sentence of twelve-and-a-half years with the final eighteen months suspended. McKeon's cousin, Daryl McKeon, was previously jailed for seven years in connection with the same incident.