METRO Tuesday, December 8, 2009 D METRODigest ArmeD police staked out a garden after pranksters reported a panther on the loose. The elite unit in Wielkopolska, Poland, spent nearly an hour watching the big cat only to discover it was a cuddly toy. From a distance it really looked like a live animal, said a police spokesman. TWO youths who attacked a man and robbed his mobile phone and 5 cash at a Luas stop were jailed yesterday. Stephen Williams, 21, of Tyrconnell road, Inchicore, bit his victims ear while holding him in a headlock, as Aaron Whelan, 19, of Woodavens, Clondalkin, attacked the mans friend. Williams said the victims were paedophiles when a passer-by asked what they were doing. Garda tracked down the culprits to a flat and overheard one ask: What are you going to do with the phone? Both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery. Williams has 18 months of a three-year-sentence suspended, while Whelan, was jailed for two years, with one year suspended. Youths jailed over phone robbery Up-and-coming Irish bands The red Labels and The Spikes got together at Phantom 105.2s studios with DJ michelle Doherty to launch the Dublins Unsigned Compilation album and promote their gig on Friday at Crawdaddy Picture: Patrick OLeary A TAXI driver caught with cannabis resin worth 114,000 has received a seven- year suspended sentence. Alan mcevoy, 40, of ravenswood Avenue, Clonsilla, pleaded guilty to having drugs for sale or supply. Garda had observed mcevoy pull up at a house, get out of his car, take a package from it and hand it to another man. Both were arrested but the other man was not charged. mcevoy, who had a cocaine problem at the time, took responsibility and told garda he was a minder and courier of drugs. Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said she was taking into account his lack of previous convictions, his remorse and the way he had turned his life around. Drug dealing taxi driver avoids prison IT HAS made an area of Dublins inner- city look like ground zero for two-and-a- half years. But today at 1.30pm, the IFSC finally gets its Luas line as the Docklands extension officially opens. minister for Transport Noel Dempsey will open the four-stop extension to the red Line at National College Of Ireland, on the Docklands mayor Street. The first extension to the Luas service since it opened in 2004 will stretch as far as the O2, stopping at Georges Dock, mayor Square, and Spencer Dock along the way, serving the new Docklands railway station. The line will open to passengers from 3pm, when Veolia will hand out vouchers for travel along the red Line for the day. Extension to the Luas opens today AN emPLOymeNT review of the year has found almost half of all workers felt worried about their job in 2009. In a survey by IrishJobs.ie, only eight per cent said it had been a good year and they were secure in their jobs. And the tough year is not over yet: of the 48 per cent of workers who get a Christmas bonus, the vast majority (87 per cent) wont be getting one this year, while two-thirds of respondents pay has decreased. But one quarter said that, while the first half of the year was tough, they are now hopeful about 2010. Almost two in five workers said they were considering or planning to return to college to up-skill while 42 per cent were actively job-seeking. Job fears replaced by hope for 2010 mOre than 150 National Irish Bank staff were facing redundancy last night after the finance house revealed it was halving its High Street presence. NIB plans to shut down 25 out of 58 branches around the country. NIB, which employs almost 700 staff in Ireland, said the closures would take place over the next 18 months. The banks chief executive Andrew Healy (pictured) said the cutbacks were prudent in the economic downturn. Staff will be offered six weeks wages for every year of service. 150 bank jobs to be axed METROE-MAIL US AT: mail@metroireland.ie TELL What do you think of whats going on in the news? Or do you have a witty view on the bizarre little things in life? We want to hear from you for Irelands liveliest letters page Trucker cleared over wheelchair death A TRUCK driver has been acquitted of dangerous driving causing the death of a motorised wheelchair user who collided with his tipper truck at a Dublin junction. Jason McWeeney, 34, of Tamerisk Park, Tallaght, had pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Alan Dempsey at a junction in Finglas. Witnesses described Mr McWeeneys truck taking a wide sweep at the junction to turn a corner while Mr Dempsey was approaching it, against the flow of traffic, on the lorrys side of the road. Following the collision, Mr McWeeney jumped from his cab saying: I didnt see him, I didnt see him and the deceased, who was still alive replied: How the f**k did you not see me. Garda John Reynolds, a collision expert, said all the trucks mirrors were properly adjusted and agreed Mr Dempsey had been travelling on the incorrect side of the road against the flow of traffic, and that this potentially placed him and other road users in danger. Fire killer father was sleeping with babysitterBy DAVID yOUNG Kevin and Theresa McGovern, parents of Lorraine McGovern Lorraine McGovern and Arthur McElhill with their five children. McElhill, 36, a convicted sex offender who killed himself and his family in a house fire, was having sex with an underage girl in the month before the blaze Picture: PA A TEENAGE babysitter abused by a sex offender who later burned his family alive in a house fire told a court yesterday how she had sex with him while his partner and five children were downstairs. She said Arthur McElhill, 36, had intercourse with her on at least ten occasions in the bedroom of the house in Omagh, Co Tyrone, which he torched only weeks later. The heavy-drinking depressive killed himself and murdered his partner, Lorraine McGovern, 29, and their five young children when he doused the terraced property in Lammy Crescent with petrol and white spirit and set it alight in November 2007. It is understood he snapped when Ms McGovern threatened to leave him. At an inquest in Omagh Court- house into the seven deaths, the ba- bysitter said the unemployed farm labourer had started a sexual rela- tionship with her four months be- fore the blaze. A police detective also told Coro- ner Suzanne Anderson that McEl- hill, who had two past convictions for sexual assault, had been corre- sponding with another minor only days before the blaze with the intent of having intercourse with her as well. Both girls were a year below the then age of consent in Northern Ireland. Giving evidence anonymously from behind a screen, the babysitter, now 18, described how McElhill lured her to an upstairs bedroom to have sex with her. The teenager, re- ferred to as Witness A, said Ms McGovern and the children had been downstairs when this took place. Stating that she viewed the sex as consensual, she revealed they had intercourse another five or six times when the rest of family was still in the house and on three or four occa- sions when Ms McGovern was out. The last time I had sexual inter- course with Arthur was about three weeks before the fire, she stated. Phone records showed McElhill had been bombarding the girl and his other intended victim with texts and calls in the days before the fire. Two days before the blaze he ex- changed 154 texts and 130 calls with the two teenagers. And on the day before the fire, he was on the phone to Witness A 34 separate times. The teenager had given conflicting reports regarding Ms McGoverns knowledge of the incidents, but said: I think it would have split them up if she found out. The hearing continues today. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html28.html29.html30.html31.html