Elderly woman's ring finger broken in Dublin burglary
A teenager appeared in court today charged with taking part in a burglary in Dublin where an elderly woman was traumatised and suffered a broken finger when an engagement ring was forcibly taken from her.
The boy (aged 15), who is from Tallaght, had been charged at the Dublin Children's Court burglary at Gledswood Park, in Clonskeagh, on the evening of September 13 last year.
In an outline of the evidence, the court was told today that it was alleged that the 78-year-old woman had been at home, lying on her bed reading the newspaper.
Detective Garda Darren Kerins said she heard a noise and thought it was her sons returning home.
The front door to her home had been forced open with a screwdriver.
“She looked up and observed two males in her bedroom. One was searching her closet; one approached and removed her engagement ring from her forcibly,” Det-Gda Kerins said.
He told the court that both males left and the ring was never recovered.
The woman went to her doctor afterwards and was “prescribed medication for the trauma” and also had a broken finger as a result of her ring being removed.
The defence submitted that the teen did not know the house was occupied at the time.
Det-Gda Kerins said that neither male admitted which of them had taken the ring from the elderly woman.
The defence pleaded with the court to keep the case in the Children's Court and not to send it forward to the Circuit Court, which can, on conviction, impose lengthier sentences.
The defence asked the court to note that the boy was aged 14 at the time, his mother had died in recent months and that he was part in a number of youth activities arranged by social services.
The defence also told the court that these activities have “filled a void in his life” and that he was now “taking steps in the right direction in his life.”
However, Judge Perrin held that the case should be sent to the higher court. The boy, who was accompanied to his case by his father, was remanded on bail to appear again in July when he is to be served with a book of evidence and returned for trial.
Another boy, also in his mid teens, is due to appear in the Children's Court next week for being involved in the burglary and a woman, in her twenties, has been charged separately.
