Barrister, 25, stole bicycles with her teen lover
A BARRISTER who stole two bicycles with her teenage lover will have to pay €500 to charity, a court heard yesterday.
Shauna Roe, 25, was told the case against her will be struck out if she pays the sum to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin.
Tallaght District Court heard Roe had been the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her boyfriend and she had lost a child at the time of her arrest. Roe’s boyfriend was 17 at the time of the offence.
Roe, a practising barrister from Duleek, Co. Meath, had pleaded not guilty to stealing two bicycles worth €1,600 from Allied Logistics in Cookstown, Tallaght, on December 5, 2017.
Garda Padraic Rowan told the court how at 12.20pm on December 6 last year he called to Allied Logistics where there had been a report of a theft of two bicycles between 8.18pm and 8.30pm the previous day.
He said he saw CCTV footage showing a 161-D Mercedes Benz which was driven by a male with a male and female sitting in the back.
The garda said the car approached the gate of Allied Logistics and the two males got out. They then went under the gate and removed two bicycles.
Garda Rowan said the female got into the driver’s seat. He said one bicycle was put in the back of the car and said the second male cycled away on the other bicycle.
Garda Rowan said the female and the male drove away in the car. He said he identified the female as Roe. Garda Rowan said he arrested Roe on February 6 last at an address at Birchwood Heights in Tallaght.
Garda Rowan said Roe had made admissions she had been driving the car and she knew that the bicycles were stolen.
Cahir O’Higgins, defending, asked Garda Rowan if his client had told him that she was pregnant when she was arrested.
Garda Rowan said Roe had told her that she had ‘lost her baby’.
Mr O’Higgins asked the Garda if he was aware that the male Roe was in a relationship with had a number of previous convictions and was due to face trial in a higher court. Garda Rowan said he was not aware.
Garda Rowan said Roe was ‘an intelligent person and a practising barrister’.
Roe told the court she had been a victim of domestic violence.
She said: ‘I never called the guards. Members of his family
‘I was scared what would happen’
did. I didn’t press any charges.’
Mr O’Higgins asked her if she had not known there was something wrong on the night of the incident.
She said: ‘Yes, but I was scared that if I did drive off what would happen to me.’
She told Mr O’Higgins she plans to leave the country and ‘start afresh somewhere else’.
Under cross examination from Garda Rowan, Roe said her boyfriend told her to ‘shut up and drive’.
Mr O’Higgins said his client had no previous convictions.
Judge Patricia Murphy found the facts proven and said she would deal with the case under the Probation Act.
The judge said if Roe pays €500 to the hospital in Crumlin she would strike out the charge. She remanded Roe on bail to May 17 for payment of the donation.