In Dublin city, the evening did not end with ordinary closing-time noise. It ended with blood on a man’s hands, a till taken from a convenience store, and leroy harris love hate becoming the phrase attached to a courtroom sentence that traced one difficult night from start to finish.
Leroy Harris, 32, has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to attempted robbery at a café and robbery involving a convenience store till. The case moved from a city street to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where the events of March 10th, 2025 were laid out in sequence: a café confrontation, a later shop robbery, and a stop by gardaí that led to his arrest for his own safety.
What happened on the night Leroy Harris Love Hate was in court over?
Harris first went to Flower and Bean Café on Cork Street, Dublin 8, where the owner was trying to shut up for the day. He squeezed under the shutters and attempted to rob the café. Garda Aidan Doyle told John Gallagher, prosecuting, that Harris twice told the owner, “this is a robbery, ” before swinging a wine bottle at him.
The owner managed to grab Harris’s wrist and force him out of the café, even though he could not get the bottle away. The victim was worried about the safety of his wife and child, who were inside the café at the time. He later told gardaí that Harris appeared intoxicated. Harris fled, but when shown CCTV footage of the attempted raid, he identified himself and made full admissions.
Later that same evening, Harris was involved in a second incident at Day Today on Bachelor’s Walk. He had just robbed a till containing €321 in cash while armed with a broken pint glass. Staff chased him and got the till back, although the cash could not be used because it was covered in Harris’s blood. That detail gave the night a grim physical trace: the crime was not only captured in evidence, but carried visibly into the street.
Why does this case matter beyond one courtroom sentence?
The story drew attention because it joined personal failure, public fear, and the quiet strain on people working and living in the city center. A café owner trying to close for the day was forced into a sudden struggle. Shop staff had to chase a man who had taken a till. Garda Hannah McEvoy later found Harris in the city centre with his hands covered in blood and said he was “a bit uncooperative” when asked what had caused the injury.
That is why the case resonates beyond the sentence itself. It shows how quickly a routine evening can become dangerous for workers, families, and bystanders. Harris was ultimately arrested after officers became concerned for his welfare, a reminder that the response to disorder can carry both enforcement and care. The facts in court also placed his record in context: he has 29 previous convictions for offences including road traffic, theft and fraud, public order and breach of bail.
What did the court hear from both sides?
The court heard that Harris of Mariner’s Port, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery of Flower and Bean Café and came forward on signed pleas from the District Court in relation to robbery and production of a broken pint glass at Day Today. That series of admissions mattered in a case built on direct evidence, witness accounts, and CCTV.
David Perry, defending, said that Harris is deeply embarrassed, ashamed and remorseful for his actions on the day. “He is extremely taken back with how he behaved, ” Perry said. On the prosecution side, the court heard the details of both incidents, the blood on Harris’s hands, and the fact that the second robbery ended with a till removed from the shop and the cash unusable.
The sentence of four years marks the legal end of the case, but the human detail lingers: a café owner protecting his family, shop staff pursuing a thief, and a defendant whose night moved from one failed robbery to another. In that sense, leroy harris love hate is not just a headline phrase. It is a reminder of how one evening in Dublin can leave lasting marks on several lives, even after the court hearing is over.
