Receipt and label not proof defendant was in house

A SHOP receipt and a clear plastic bag with a prescription label on it led gardaí to question a man about to trespassing on a property in Ballyduff a court has heard.

Aidan Canty of 30 Tower Drive, Ballyduff, was before Listowel District Court charged with trespassing with intent to commit an offence on date between September 24, 2017 and September 25, 2017 at Benmore, Ballyduff.

Mr Canty strongly denied being at the premises, and his solicitor, Padraig O’Connell, also said Mr Canty was not there.

During an interview with gardaí, he said that he did know Adam and the house but that he knew nothing about the incident.

He said that if someone asked him for tobacco, he would put in a clear bag and give it to them. He added that he did not know how the receipt got in the house.

Judge David Waters said that the receipt and prescription packet were not sufficient evidence to convict Mr Canty of the offence.

Adam Pierse, the owner of the unoccupied property – vacant since summer 2014 – stated that he had received a phone call from his father at 10am on the morning of September 25, 2017, telling him that three glass panels in the sliding door at the back of the house had been smashed.

Mr Pierse’s father, Patrick, told the court that he had checked the house two days previously and found nothing amiss.

He said that on the morning of September 25, he went to the house and discovered the windows broken.

He told the court that the property was “completely ransacked” and that he found a prescription package containing tobacco and a SuperValu receipt in the building.

Mr Pierse said that he immediately contacted the Gardaí and handed the receipt and prescription document to the investigating Garda Keith Maher on his arrival to the scene later that evening. Garda Maher obtained CCTV footage linked to the time on the receipt, and this showed Mr Canty in the shop at that time. Mr Canty, when questioned, acknowleged that was him but he said he had no idea how the receipt ended up in the house.

Defence solicitor Padraig O’Connell said that Mr Canty had engaged fully with Gardaí, even offering them samples of his fingerprints, and argued that no DNA evidence linking Mr Canty to the scene was discovered.

“We ended up here today with a case on the basis of a receipt and a prescription label,” said Mr O’Connell, adding that there was no identification of Mr Canty in the house and that a case must be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Judge David Waters said that the question is whether this would be a safe case to bring to a jury. He said that he had given a reasonable explanation for the prescription bag and that while the receipt shows him buying something, ‘ how do we know what happened that receipt after?’, adding that he himself does not keep track of his receipts.

Making his decision, Judge Waters said that this is a case that would not be allowed before a jury and that there was not enough evidence for him to convict Mr Canty. The case was dismissed.