PURE EVIL13
Court hears mum’s anguish at desecration of her girl’s grave
A MOTHER has described as “pure evil” the actions of a woman who stole from and desecrated her daughter’s grave on three separate occasions.
At Killaloe District Court sitting in Ennis, Kirsty Donnellan told the court she was “in a state of shock, anger and despair” when finding that the 17-yearold’s resting place had been desecrated in May 2020.
During the course of her victim impact statement, the mother-of-three told the court her eldest daughter Scarlett had died just 20 months prior to the thefts from her grave at Tulla graveyard.
Concerning the grave thefts, Mairead O’sullivan, 41, has entered 18 separate guilty pleas concerning charges of stealing goods with a combined value of €597.50 from graves at cemeteries at Drumcliffe and Templemaley outside Ennis and also from Tulla cemetery.
There are 14 victims in the case, as Ms O’sullivan of Fergus View, Cappahard, Tulla Road, Ennis, stole from the same graves on several occasions. Sgt
Louis Moloney told the court that four parties have made victim impact statements for Judge Mary Larkin.
Ms Donnellan wished to deliver her own victim impact statement from the witness box. In it, Ms Donnellan told the court: “For any parent to bury their child, it is the most distressing, traumatic event that one could ever have to face in their life.
“So for someone to literally disturb the grave and to steal items from it, that are sentimental, and represent something of that person, that has meaning behind it, is extremely upsetting and the most hideous crime one could ever be a victim of.
“When a loved one dies, the only thing we can do for them is to tend to their grave. We should
be able to do that without fear that items of sentimental significance will not be touched.
“These thefts have added to my anxiety, pain and huge loss. As a mother that grieves for her child, I should never have to visit my child’s grave finding it interfered with and desecrated. My daughter also deserved to rest in peace.”
Ms Donnellan stated that Scarlett “died tragically and unexpectedly in September 2018, to which I still await answers regarding the circumstances surrounding the causes that led her to her death, and as of yet, no inquest has been held due to various gardai and other investigation”.
On discovering the first theft, Ms Donnellan recalled: “Still in the midst of my grieving, I went to visit her grave.
“I had planted two miniature yellow rose bushes on her grave a week or so previous as Scarlett’s favourite colour was yellow. However, on the day of May 16, 2020, on visiting my daughter’s grave, I was in a state of shock, anger and despair and was in tears to find two holes in her grave where Ms O’sullivan had dug out the rose bushes from my daughter’s grave.
“This was not the only time my daughter’s grave was desecrated.”
Solicitor for Ms O’sullivan, Tara Godfrey told Ms Donnellan said her client wishes to offer her apology to her and the other victims in the case.
The judge asked Ms Donnellan if she believed that Ms O’sullivan should go to jail, Ms Donnellan replied: “I don’t know.”
Judge Larkin said she would adjourn the case to September 6 for a Probation Report on Ms O’sullivan.
Judge Larkin said she hopes the Probation Report will find out why Ms O’sullivan committed these offences, adding: “I want to hear from the Probation Service why someone would even consider going into a graveyard and desecrating a grave.”
She told Ms Donnellan: “I am sorry for the distress that this has caused you.”
Ms Godfrey previously told the court that Ms O’sullivan is a married mother and “has no history of criminality”. However, she added that Ms O’sullivan “had a certain vulnerability around the time” of the thefts.
I should never have to visit my child’s grave finding it interfered with & desecrated KIRSTY DONNELLAN KILLALOE DISTRICT COURT