
Burglar with 93 previous convictions has jail sentence overturned
A serial offender with 93 previous convictions who stole thousands of euro worth of items from restaurant staff rooms in Dublin city centre has had his 15-month jail sentence replaced with a fully suspended term on appeal.
Stepan Pavlov (46), with an address at New Cabra Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty in the District Court to burglary in three separate incidents, contrary to section 12 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001.
Advertisement
The District Court Appeals Court on Thursday heard that on July 14th, 2023, Pavlov entered Murray's Bar on O'Connell Street and went to the staff area where he stole over €1,000 worth of items from staff lockers.
Four months earlier, on March 10th, 2023, Pavlov had entered Chequer Lane on Exchequer Street, Dublin 2 and again went to the staff area where he stole a wallet and a laptop worth over €1,600.
On a third occasion on October 10th, 2023, Pavlov entered a restaurant on Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 and was seen rummaging through staff property. He was stopped and discovered to have a stolen purse in his possession worth €200.
He was given a total of 15 months in jail for the three charges in the District Court.
Advertisement
Pavlov has 93 previous convictions, including those for burglary and the possession of stolen property.
Ireland
Repeat offender with 182 previous convictions gets...
Read More
Defence counsel for Pavlov, Stephen O'Mahoney, told Judge James O'Donohoe that his client had embarked on the road to rehabilitation for his drug addiction.
He presented a letter from Coolmine Therapeutic Community, which he said gave a 'gold standard' for his client's efforts to rehabilitate.
Judge O'Donohoe told Pavlov that this was his 'last chance saloon' and decided to suspend the sentence of 15 months for a period of two years.
The sentence was suspended on condition that Pavlov keep the peace, provide clear urine analysis on a monthly basis and stay out of the city centre without just cause.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
36 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Small shops on the brink amid shoplifting and violence
Independent retailers face being put out of business by an epidemic of shoplifting, violence and rogue traders selling illegal cigarettes and vapes. Shocking figures show 96 per cent of small shop owners said rising retail crime combined with Labour's tax hikes and high energy costs have made it harder for their businesses to survive. A third of those surveyed by the Federation of Independent Retailers have noticed an increase in crime in their stores since the start of the year. Nearly all – 95 per cent – said more shoppers will turn to rogue traders to buy tobacco and e-cigarettes amid a government crackdown on smoking and vaping. The Federation's national president, Mo Razzaq, said: 'We have repeatedly warned the Government in no uncertain terms that independent retail is on the brink of disaster unless our industry receives support.'


BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Justice Minister voices concern over time taken to find Tina Satchwell's body
Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has raised concern with the Garda Commissioner over how long it took to find the body of murder victim Tina Satchwell. Jim O'Callaghan also said it would be preferable if An Garda Síochána had its own cadaver dog to help find human remains. Advertisement He said there is currently just one cadaver dog on the island of Ireland which belongs to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has raised concerns (Brian Lawless/PA) It was announced last week that both the investigation into the murder of Mrs Satchwell, and of Co Kerry farmer Michael Gaine, will be reviewed. A report is to be compiled and given to Mr O'Callaghan on Mrs Satchwell's disappearance while the case of Mr Gaine is undergoing a peer review. Speaking on RTÉ Radio One's This Week programme, Mr O'Callaghan said he had his quarterly meeting with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris last week and brought up the murder of Mrs Satchwell. Advertisement 'I think from the outset it has to be said that gardai deserve to be commended for getting justice in this case,' he said. 'The person responsible for her murder, Richard Satchwell, is now serving a life sentence. 'However I did raise with the commissioner concern about the fact it had taken a considerable period of time to find her body and he said he is going to prepare a report on that.' It took six years before Mrs Satchwell's body was found. Advertisement Mr O'Callaghan pointed out there are 'very devious people out there who go to very great lengths to hide their crimes'. 'That was the case with Richard Satchwell, and it is also the case with the person responsible for the murder of Mike Gaine who hasn't yet been apprehended,' he said. Asked whether a cadaver dog should have been brought into the Satchwell home in 2017 during the investigation, Mr O'Callaghan said 'probably, it should have happened'. He said he also spoke to Mr Harris about the effectiveness of cadaver dogs. Advertisement 'They're a very specialised dog in terms of trying to train them, there is one on the island of Ireland, the PSNI has one,' he said. 'That dog is sought by many police forces in Britain as well. We got the use of the dog here and he was of much assistance. 'It obviously would be preferable if we had a cadaver dog. They have a very limited work life, cadaver dogs, they're only operational for a period of about three years, they have to go through a very difficult training process. 'It would be preferable if the cadaver dog available on the island had been used earlier.' Advertisement


Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why Duchess is determined to expose darkest horrors of war
The Duchess of Edinburgh would like to be put out of a job. 'It's a privilege,' she says of her work with victims of sexual violence in war. 'I just wish it would get less.' Saying 'the stories never get any easier and they never change', she adds of her travel to conflict zones around the world: 'It doesn't seem to stop.' The Duchess is speaking as she visits the Imperial War Museum's first exhibition about the untold stories of war. From Second World War child evacuees to Ukrainian women today, she sees six rooms of evidence, first-hand testimonies and photographs that detail how rape has been, and still is, used as a weapon of war. 'We have to help people to understand that they [victims] are not the ones who have the shame, they are not the ones whose lives should be destroyed,' the Duchess says. 'We have to do better.' Her visit to the exhibition, Unsilenced, comes ahead of International Day to End Sexual Violence in Conflict on June 19. And it follows Sophie's trips to Kosovo, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Chad to hear from rape survivors and their children. In October 2024, she became the first member of the Royal family to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The war in Europe, the Duchess says, has brought sexual violence 'into stark reality' for the public in Britain. 'A lot more people are more aware ... because suddenly it's happened where people can suddenly see it and it's more related to them,' she said. 'Suddenly it's being brought into sharp focus. When we have a conflict in Europe, it brings it into stark reality but we must not forget conflicts in Africa. 'They are just as important. Sometimes I just feel, sadly, that Sudan and the DRC, they get slightly swept aside.' 'People can only cope with a certain amount,' she adds. 'What do you do? What's the most important conflict? They all seem to get drowned out. 'It's very hard so we have to keep going. Exhibitions like these are very important. Just to bring it to the wider awareness of the public.' It is a mission that has been close to her heart for some time. It is also one of the most challenging topics imaginable for a member of the Royal family. When she became a full time working Royal in 2002, the Duchess tried several routes to find patronages and causes that she could get her teeth into. She leaned into a natural interest in gender equality, founded the Women's Network Forum in 2014, and was drawn into events for the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, meeting Angelina Jolie, its co-founder, at the Royal Festival Hall in 2018. 'Profoundly moved by the things she has learnt' The following year, when Sophie, then the Countess of Wessex, announced she would be working formally with the organisation, a Palace source told The Telegraph: 'This a new strand of work for HRH, something she has been slowly stepping into and engaging with over recent months. 'She has been profoundly moved by the things she's learnt.' There was something about the topic that 'just clicked for her', another insider says now. 'It's a very genuine thing she's really committed herself to. She wants to be of use, to draw attention to something that will make a difference. 'She's met a lot of survivors over the years and carries that with her.' It is not an easy subject to have chosen. The extreme graphic details the Duchess hears are difficult to share with the world; the impact and progress of her campaigning impossible to measure as wars continue to rage around the world. Practical and operating largely under the radar – her engagements are not covered by the press generally – it does not seem to particularly deter her. She speaks carefully (thanks to her previous career in PR) but confidently: in 2019, addressing the Commonwealth women's affairs ministers meeting in Kenya, she called for a ' sustainable and feminist peace '. At the exhibition, she asks repeatedly whether victims of sexual violence have been consulted in putting the exhibit together. 'The stories bring you to your knees' The Duchess has described how she was left 'completely and utterly floored' the first time she heard testimony from a survivor. Until then, she told the BBC in 2021, she had read about it in 'very dry' briefing notes and statistics. 'It was truly upsetting,' she said of hearing directly from women. 'But I feel in a way it was really important to hear the actual reality.' 'When you hear someone's story of gang rape it absolutely brings you to your knees. I had tears falling off my face when she was talking to me. I was completely silent but I was in floods of tears.' Every story, she says, lives with her. 'It seems so enormous. I was thinking how on earth am I going to be able to make even a tiny bit of difference. I have to concentrate on one foot in front of the other,' she said. At the Imperial War Museum, the Duchess wears her heart on her sleeve. She snorts at the differing advice for men and women for preventing the spread of venereal disease during the Second World War (the women always to blame), and wryly declares the use of paintings of half-naked women being allowed on RAF airplane noses up until 2007 'surprising'. Shown papers relating to the abuse of Second World War evacuees and told about British, French and US soldiers also being known to have committed abuse – albeit not state-sanctioned – the Duchess agreed: 'It's not just happening to foreigners by foreigners. 'It is endemic around the world, which is why it's such an important thing to recognise and address.' The exhibition contains items from the First World War onwards. The Duchess was shown sections relating to the 'Comfort Women Corps' in the Second World War in Japan, the Yazidi women enslaved by Islamic State in 2014, and the treatment of Bosnian children born of sexual violence in conflict. 'Did you work with survivors?' she asked Helen Upcraft, the lead curator, and Jack Davies, the exhibitions manager. 'Obviously it's about them, their voices are important. We don't want to talk about them without them feeling they have had representation and the ability to tell their own stories.' The small show has been developed alongside four NGOs: Women for Women International, All Survivors Project, Free Yezidi Foundation and Waging Peace. Artwork ends exhibition on positive note 'This is such a huge subject, so many have been and are being affected by it,' the Duchess added, hearing that the exhibition wa designed to end on a positive note, with a traditional cloth artwork called Peace by Piece, created by Sudanese women. 'It's very easy to leave people feeling utterly depressed and bereft.' She suggests that there could be a wall or table at the end for visitors to write their final thoughts or messages on. Told that the exhibition has been seen by university students, but is for over-16s only due to its content, the Duchess agrees: 'You don't want to traumatise them.' Nevertheless, she suggests, the explanation of power dynamics could be useful when 'they're trying to navigate themselves through school and all the social media'. 'Hopefully they won't ever come into contact with this sort of thing, but there is a chance that they might and having that wider knowledge is important,' she added. Congratulated for her own work with survivors through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, Sophie said: 'If only we could do ourselves out of a job.' In October last year, The Telegraph travelled with the Duchess to the refugee camp of Adré on the Chad-Sudan border, where she met victims of rape and torture living as refugees. The Duchess, who was seen in tears after leaving a tent where she spoke to women about all they had suffered, said: 'What they have all witnessed is complete atrocity.' In April 2024, she travelled to Ukraine to meet survivors of sexual violence, and discussed how to support them with Volodymyr Zelensky and Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's president and first lady. She is intending to make further trips overseas to highlight the issue, but no destinations have been confirmed yet. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, who has travelled widely with the Duchess to areas including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has praised her ability to make people feel at ease and her 'deeply human personal skills'. Speaking in Nepal towards the end of a six-day Royal tour in February, the Duchess said of victims of human trafficking and sexual violence: 'If people in my position don't champion people like that, they have very little voice. 'And to change behaviours you have to keep banging the drum. So I keep on banging the drum.'