EXCLUSIVE | 

Dublin thug who has racked up 150 years of sentences sent down for six more for robbing priest

‘He wasn’t very bright, the CCTV was clear as a bell. He wasn’t wearing any kind of cap or hoodie’

Today at 16:40

An elderly priest who was viciously assaulted and held at knifepoint by a notorious criminal has told how he managed to escape from his captor and ran without ever looking back.

Violent thug Anthony Connors (47), who has amassed sentences totalling more than 150 years over his adult life, was sentenced to six more years behind bars earlier this month after pleading guilty to the robbery of a priest at a parochial house in Coolock, north Dublin, on September 30, 2021.

Connors, who has terrorised elderly victims for decades, had an address at South Richmond Street, Dublin, at the time of the offence but has previously lived in Darndale in north Dublin.

Connors has spent most of his adult life behind bars and is known for his sickening attacks on elderly people in their homes, using threats and violence. He is so prolific that gardai across Dublin are issued with alerts whenever he completes his prison sentences.

Among his many previous victims was a 100-year-old woman who he grabbed from her bed as he ransacked her Dublin home looking for money.

Due to his targeting of elderly victims, he has spent much of his time behind bars in isolation due to fear of attack from other inmates who are sickened by his crimes.

Connors had just been released from prison when he targeted a parochial house in Coolock in September 2021.

A priest, who is aged in his 70s and asked not to be named, told the Sunday World that he answered the door to Connors at around 4pm that day after the caller said he wanted to talk to a priest.

“He came in and was sitting in the front room and was there for about a minute when it was very obvious he was there looking for money. I forget the exact details, but he said someone was after him and he had to leave the country, said the priest.

“I gave him a small amount and he said that wasn’t enough. I said ‘that’s all I can give you’.”

The priest then went to leave the room when Connors followed behind.

“I thought he was going out, but my back was to him, and he grabbed me and knocked me on the ground. He dragged me into the kitchen, and I was on the ground at this stage.”

Connors grabbed a large blade from a knife block in the kitchen.

“He took one of the knives from that, a breadknife, and said ‘we’re going upstairs’. He had this [false] notion there was this treasure upstairs.”

Connors forced the priest upstairs and made him sit on a chair as he ransacked his office.

“He spent a while picking up things and looking for money. I was sitting with my back to him facing the door. I looked over my shoulder at him and he was going through envelopes looking for money and I saw an opportunity and ran. It wasn’t that I was planning to run, I saw the opportunity.”

He bolted from his chair and fled from the room.

“I pulled the door after me and was down the stairs before he got a chance to come after me and was out the door.

“I didn’t look around.”

Gardai were easily able to identify Connors from CCTV.

“He wasn’t very bright really. The CCTV was clear as a bell. He wasn’t wearing any kind of cap or hoodie,” the priest said.

Connors has 61 previous convictions dating back to the 1990s. Many victims were threatened with knives and scissors and multiple victims told how the incidents had changed their lives forever.

A previous court hearing said the average age of his victims was 74 and stretched up to 100.

With standard remission Connors will be back on the streets in two years.