BURGLARIES OF ELDERLY RURAL HOMES A VIRUS AS HARMFUL TO THE COMMUNITY AS COVID-19
CITY GANG PLANNED PRECISION RAID ON HOME WHILE COUPLE, IN THEIR 80’S, WERE OUT AT MASS
CORK city gangs who target vulnerable elderly people living in remote rural parts of the county cause as much distress and disruption to society as Covid- 19, said a judge as he jailed two men for one such burglary in North Cork.
Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said that the practice of city criminals targeting vulnerable elderly people was particularly heinous as he jailed Niall Fitzpatrick (53) and Jerry O’Leary (62) for seven years each. Fitzpatrick and O’Leary pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Friday to burglary by entering the home of an elderly couple at Kilberehert, Freemount on October 19th last and attempting to commit a theft.
“This practice of going abroad to rural communities and committing burglaries in houses of some very elderly people is a virus as virulent and as harmful to the community as Covid-19,” said Judge Ó Donnabháin. “It causes enormous hurt, worry, fear and disruption for elderly people who are terrified of this type of activity ... it is frightening that people from Cork city are coming out targeting elderly and vulnerable people.”
Judge Ó Donnabháin made his comments after hearing evidence from Det Insp Vincent O’Sullivan who told how gardaí learned that Fitzpatrick, O’Leary and a third man were planning a burglary in a remote part of North Cork.
He said that gardaí mounted surveillance on Fitzpatrick at his home at Corrin Close, the Glen in Cork on October 18 when he hired a car and collected O’Leary at his home at Brandon Crescent, Dillon’s Cross, also in Cork city.
They collected a third man who took over the driving in Liscarroll and all three went to Freemount where the third man dropped off Fitzpatrick and O’Leary, who hid in a wood and spent four hours staking out a nearby farmhouse.
The farmhouse belonged to an 88 year old man and his 86 year old wife so gardaí continued to maintain surveillance on the gang, who travelled to Freemount again the next day in another hired car.
The gang waited for the elderly couple to leave the house around 6pm to go to Saturday evening Mass and the third man followed them to make sure that they were not returning to the house, said Det Insp O’Sullivan.
Gardaí were watching Fitzpatrick and O’Leary as they forced open a back window using a screwdriver and Fitzpatrick went into the house only to be confronted by members of the Armed Support Unit lying in wait.
Both Fitzpatrick and O’Leary were arrested at the scene and brought to the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork where they exercised their right to silence during interview and did not assist gardai in their investigation, he said.
Det Insp O’Sullivan said that Fitzpatrick had 70 previous convictions, including ones for robbery and firearms offences while O’Leary had 48 previous convictions including eight for burglary.
The court heard that one of O’Leary’s convictions for burglary was for a very similar offence in 2007 when he and a number of accomplices broke into the home of elderly couple in Boherbue, only to be confronted by gardaí.
Judge Ó Donnabháin was handed a Victim Impact Statement on behalf of the elderly man in which he set out how their lives had been affected by being targeted but he indicated he did not want the statement read out in court.
Det Insp O’Sullivan said he wanted to put it on the record that gardaí were very grateful to the elderly couple for trusting them and allowing armed officers to take up positions in their home for the detection of the crime.
Acknowledging that the two men had pleaded guilty, thus sparing the victims a trial, he also noted:
“What I am dealing with are two dedicated and committed criminals, one in his sixties, one in his fifties. I don’t accept anything will change either of these men until they decide they have had enough and they are going to give up.”
The gang had hired cars, changed drivers, brought a change of clothes with them, hidden in woods and staked out their target over two days, suggesting that this was a carefully planned and calculated crime, he said.
“It is hard to see a burglary of greater determination or seriousness than this one …. the level of preparedness is unusual and it puts this burglary on a different plateau to the more usual, opportunistic burglary,” he added.