Suspended sentence for monastery trespasser
A man discovered with his trousers and underwear around his ankles in a toilet in an enclosed nuns' monastery is to get a suspended sentence on very strict conditions from Judge Joseph Matthews.
Shane Hempenstall (aged 29) of Finglas Wood Road, Finglas West needed "long-term vocational training and support because he is deeply psychiatrically disturbed" Judge Matthews said at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when he further remanded him on continuing bail for sentence.
Hempenstall, who has 40 previous convictions, was found guilty by an 11-1 majority jury verdict of trespassing in a manner that could cause fear at the Redemptoristine Nuns of Saint Alphonsus Monastery in Drumcondra on August 19, 2004.
Judge Matthews said he would impose a custodial sentence but suspend it on the strictest conditions which would embrace, among other aspects, accommodation, medication, signing-on and vocational training because "he needs constant supervision and support for his disease that must be dealt with".
"I cannot just consign him back to the streets with nothing to do or he will simply drift back into aimless crime and there comes a time when the plug has to be pulled," he said.
"Despite his record there is not a hint of violence but he needs a lot help if he is going to function in society with a semblance of dignity and not just become another statistic."
Judge Matthews added: "Do we care enough in this era of the Celtic Tiger for the needs of this man?" and adjourned sentence to give the Probation and Welfare Service time to devise a structured plan for the court.
Sisters Perpetuo and Mary Clement, who have been in the order for more than 40 years each, gave evidence at the trial in March that gardaí were called after Hempenstall was seen walking along a corridor from a parlour in the monastery.
Hempenstall told gardaí who found him in the lavatory with his trousers and underwear down at his ankles that his reason for being there was to look for a toilet.
Sr Perpetuo told Mr Cormac Quinn BL, prosecuting, that there was a toilet beside the public entrance to the church and more toilets in the monastery reception area.
Sr Perpetuo agreed, in cross-examination by Dr Marjorie Young BL, defending, that a door from the church to the monastery had been unlocked during the public mass that started some 45 minutes earlier and that anyone at the mass could have accessed the monastery through it.
She told Dr Young there were "nice chairs, cutlery and china" in the parlour which Hempenstall left.
Sr Mary Clement agreed with Dr Young that there was no damage on doors or the parlour window and that the window must have been opened from the inside.
Dr Damien Mohan, a consultant psychiatrist, said Hempenstall had been diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia and his illness was further exacerbated by his regular cannabis resin abuse
Dr Mohan, a defence witness, told Dr Young that as a result Hempenstall had "disordered thinking, emotion and judgement, and would perceive people to be persecuting him or be excessively suspicious".
He would also hear voices, his judgement would be impaired and he would have difficulty distinguishing between reality and non-reality. When he treated him in mid-April 2004, some four months before the offence, he was "vague, guarded, found it difficult to engage with people and unable to take care of himself".
