This article is from page 2 of the 2006-05-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
A JUDGE has stressed that elderly people must be allowed to live out their lives in safety, as he sentenced a man to four years in jail for robbing a woman in her 80s, at her Ennis home.
Judge Con Murphy made the statement as he sentenced Mark McCarthy (20), of Millbrook House, Mill Road, Ennis. He admitted stealing €20 cash from the 82-year-old woman at her home on the Turnpike Road area of Ennis on July 20 last year.
Detective Garda Kevin Kennedy told Ennis Circuit Court that the woman – who lives alone – woke up at 3am to find an intruder searching her bedroom. The accused, he said, told her he was looking for money.
“He beat her over the head with a pillow. He said ‘All old people hide money under their mattresses.’ He turned over the mattress while she was lying in bed,” said the garda.
McCarthy then searched the woman’s handbag and took €20 in cash.
The woman pleaded with him not to kill her. McCarthy told her he wouldn’t kill her, that he wanted money. She tried to ring gardai and he disconnected the phone.
McCarthy was arrested some hours later, on suspicion of robbery. He told gardai he had been drinking under the de Valera monument, took tablets for depression and other tablets that gave him a buzz.
He said that a friend of his lived in the Turnpike area and he had intended going to his house, but went to the elderly woman’s home in error. The garda accepted this explanation.
The court heard McCarthy has been in trouble most of his life and has a long list of previous convictions, including for burglary, public order and damaging property.
Defending barrister Michael Fitzgibbon said his client was sexually abused when he was very young and as a result he started drinking and taking drugs.
“Things began to get totally out of control for him. He is not a career criminal. He hasn’t been involved in major crime,” said the barrister.
Judge Con Murphy said burglaries must be stamped out and said the incident before the court was “most serious”.
“Even if it wasn’t premeditated, he went on with it. In towns like Ennis, old people should be allowed to live out their days in safety and security,” he said.
He took the guilty plea into account and the fact that McCarthy cooperated with gardai, but said he has a “plethora” of previous offences. He imposed a four-year jail term.