A CONVICTED MURDERER who was involved in a robbery in Co Louth less than half an hour after seriously assaulting a Lidl worker has been jailed at Dundalk Circuit Court for three years and three months.

Judge Dara Hayes heard Ryan McLaughlin (43) of no fixed abode, but originally from Omagh, Co Tyrone, had been released early from his life sentence under licence and was arrested that night in Ballymun in Dublin, where he was so intoxicated he was unable to stand.

The defendant was before the court having entered signed guilty pleas to assaulting an employee causing him harm at Lidl, St Helena’s Terrace, Dundalk and the robbery of a cash register valued at €5,000 and €700 in cash from Go Petrol Station, Newry Road, Dundalk on 7 March last.

The court was told the defendant had entered the Lidl store around 4.35pm with another man and a woman and, while the other two had paid for items at the self-service checkout, Ryan McLaughlin had filled a pull-along trolley with over €155 worth of goods and went to walk out without paying.

The first injured party saw his colleagues, one of whom was pregnant, involved in a heated discussion with the defendant as he attempted to leave. He went over “to calm the situation”, but McLaughlin exited the store.

A struggle began and the defendant jumped towards the Lidl worker and grabbed him by the shoulder, and as the victim attempted to push him off him, both men ended up on the ground where he felt a sharp stinging pain in his ribs and realised he had been bitten. That victim subsequently attended hospital for treatment.

Some 20 minutes later, a white Audi pulled up outside the petrol station, which the defendant and another man entered. A woman was working at the till and her friend was present in the shop when both men approached with groceries and asked for cigarettes.

The pair pretended to tap their cards for payment, when a third man entered. This man threw a cider bottle he was carrying at the cashier and jumped over the counter. The woman ran into the store room and locked the door.

The defendant then helped him to pull a recently installed cash register from the counter before fleeing the scene.

The woman’s friend had run outside to get help during the robbery, and she subsequently activated the panic alarm. The cashier told gardaí she was in fear for her life, but the bottle did not injure her.

Ryan McLaughlin was identified from CCTV in both premises and was subsequently arrested in Dublin around 9.30pm, where he was extremely intoxicated and unsteady on his feet.

When he was interviewed the next day, he said “he had a couple of days missing in his head” and when asked why that was, said “all sorts of drugs”.

The court heard he was on a two-day drugs binge. He was charged the same day and has been in custody since he appeared before Drogheda District Court on 9 March.

The owner of the petrol station was unable to attend court to give evidence in person, but the investigating garda said the victim was “very upset his business is down €5,000 approximately”.

Judge Dara Hayes was told McLaughlin had one previous conviction in the Republic of Ireland for a robbery in Co Donegal in 2002, for which he was sentenced to 21 days detention in St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders.

The most significant of his 20 previous convictions in the UK was a murder in Northern Ireland in September 2006. He was sentenced to life in April 2008 and was out on licence at the time of the offending.

Defence barrister Donough McDonough BL said it was fortunate that nobody was injured during the robbery.

He stressed that after his client was arrested, it was noted he was unable to walk without falling down and, during his interview the following day, he had said he remembered nothing about the previous few days.

The court heard the other two men involved were arrested by the PSNI in relation to incidents that happened in Northern Ireland on the same day.

McDonough said his client had been released on licence in January 2025 and while initially he “did well”, his life fell apart after he stopped taking his medication and suffered an epileptic seizure that October.

That led to him losing his job the next month and then losing his rented accommodation in Belfast. He was homeless by January this year, he told the court. 

The barrister described it as a “spectacular fall from grace” which saw him associate with negative peers and return to drug use shortly before the offending, after being drug-free for nine years. He added the probation report outlined how his client regrets his actions and acknowledged the impact of them on his victims.

The court was told that the defendant, who was assessed as being at high risk of reoffending, was one of five children who had a difficult upbringing and had ended up in State care.

Judge Hayes noted the defendant’s childhood involved physical abuse and witnessing domestic violence, and that he had begun abusing alcohol aged 10 before taking cannabis and progressing onto other drugs including ecstasy, crack cocaine and heroin.

The Probation Service had indicated it was not in a position to provide supervision in McLaughlin’s case, as he has been recalled to prison in the North on foot of the Co Louth offences.

The judge also noted that “people going about their day’s work were attacked and placed in fear”.

He imposed concurrent sentences of three years and three months, which were backdated to 9 March when he went into custody.