WOMAN FOUND WITH LATE AUGHRIM LADY’S JEWELLERY

PROPERTY TAKEN FROM FAMILY HOME WAS FOUND IN JACKET

A WOMAN who denied having stolen property was found guilty last Thursday at Bray District Court.

Annalise O’Brien (22) 6 Hazelwood, Bray, was accused of having jewellery belonging to the late Anna Fanning, and some money belonging to her parents, Michael and Angela. The items were taken from their Aughrim home in a burglary on April 26, 2016.

Garda David McHugh told the court that he was on mobile patrol with Garda Paul Ryan on that date. At 3.40 p.m. they had received a report of a vehicle broken into at Glencmacnass and a witness had gotten the registration of the perpetrator’s car.

Gardai McHugh and Ryan saw the car in Enniskerry and it drove off. They activated the lights and siren and followed the car down the 20 bends at speed and onto the N11, before turning off at the Fassaroe sliproad.

The car went the wrong way around the roundabout, drove onto Upper Dargle Road, then turned left up blind lane before colliding with the path. It blew out the front right and rear left wheels, said Garda Ryan.

The court heard that four people got out of the car. He said that Annalise O’Brien was in the back on the driver’s side.

He said that the male driver and front seat passenger made off on foot. Garda McHugh caught the male back seat passenger and Garda Ryan caught the other back seat passenger, O’Brien, who threw a jacket over the hedge.

Both O’Brien and the other back seat passenger were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

Garda McHugh went behind the hedge and retrieved the jacket. The name ‘Annalise O’Brien’ was written inside the jacket. He found a red handkerchief in the jacet, containing €342,70 in coins, mostly €2 coins. There was a red pouch containing two gold chains, a gold ring and two gold coloured earrings.

Gardai searched the car and found two green gloves, a red glove and US$7.

O’Brien told gardai in interview that she was not involved with the car being broken into. She said she was in Tallaght before Bray and got a lift with the men in the car. ‘I think they got a fright and the chap driving had no insurance,’ she told gardaí. ‘When I was with them, they broke up no car.’

She said she didn’t know there was anything in her jacket and threw it away because it felt heavy and she had a bad feeling.

‘You’re putting the blame on me because you couldn’t catch who was there,’ she said.

Gardai said to her in interview that it wasn’t possible for the men to be in Glenmacnass, then collect her in Tallaght, then be back in Enniskerry in 35 minutes.

Garda Ryan identified the items found in the jacket as having been taken in the burglary from the Fannings home earlier that day. Their daughter Anna had passed away three years prior to the burglary.

In cross-examination, a barrister for the defence asked Garda McHugh when the burglary had taken place.

He said that it was between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. that day.

‘It’s possible that my client was involved in the burglary, but you can’t say for sure?’ asked the barrister, and Garda McHugh agreed.

Michael Fanning gave evidence that he had left the house that day to go to the village. When he came back he noticed things had been disturbed.

‘ There was a jewellery box thrown on the bed in our room. In Anna’s room, her jewellery box and locker were open and other items thrown around,’ he said. Anna was 34 years old when she died suddenly in her sleep one night.

‘I was very upset,’ Mr Fanning said. ‘We had only one daughter. She had died. Somebody had broken in and stolen her effects, stolen her jewellery.’

His wife Angela realised later that a container in which she saved €2 coins had also been taken, as well as a small amount of dollars which Anna had.

Gardai examined the scene, said Mr Fanning, and took prints. Mr Fanning identified the jewellery as belonging to his daughter. He recognised it because they were items he and his wife had decided to keep.

‘We went through all her things after she died and gave away a lot of her good jewellery to friends and relations,’ he told the court.

Anne travelled a lot, said Mr Fan- ning. She saved all her money for her travels. She didn’t have a car, she didn’t drink or smoke. She had a few dollars left over from one of her trips to the States and these were taken from her bedroom locker.

‘ The gardai kept us informed at every stage and we were very grateful for that,’ he said.

The barrister for the defence made a number of applications for direction. He said that O’Brien had not been informed of the reason for her arrest in ordinary language.

He said that the State had not met the case. He said that the act required that Ms O’Brien possess the property other than in the course of stealing. ‘For the act of possession to take place, it is incumbent on the prosecution to satisfy the court beyond reasonable doubt that a person other than the accused stole the property.’

He said also that the goods taken belonged to both Mr Fanning and his wife, and that his wife should also have given evidence of ownership.

Judge David Kennedy rejected the applications.

The matter was adjourned to May 14 for the preparation of a probation report.