ONE of three men who carried out an early morning crime spree in Kinsale last January has been sent to prison after pleading guilty to five offences.
BY DAVID FORSYTHE
Defence solicitor Daithi Ó Donnabháin told Bandon District Court that Jack O’Connell, 27, of Rowanville, Onslow Gardens, Commons Road, Cork was pleading guilty to theft, burglary, trespass, and the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle.
Court presenter Sergeant Tom Mulcahy said that the offences took place in the early hours of January 19th 2024. Three men driving a black Volkswagen Passat with Donegal number plates wearing black clothing and face coverings or balaclavas were observed at a number of locations.
In Ballinhassig, a car was robbed where €30 in cash, €160 in Dunnes Stores vouchers, and €20 in Penneys vouchers were taken. The items were not recovered.
Two males were observed jumping a fence at Stone Well, Kinsale at 3.30am. They searched the interior of a car parked there and the offence was reported to gardaí the following day. A theft was also reported from the Gleann Orga estate.
At 4am, at Ard na Mara in Kinsale, three males wearing balaclavas broke the lock on a shed and took a motorcycle but were interrupted by the owner and left the bike behind before fleeing in the black Passat. A short time later gardaí received a report of youths ‘checking cars’ in the Belgooly area.
At Curra Woods in Riverstick, gardaí responded to a report of three males trying to break into cars. When gardaí reached the area, they came upon the black Passat and cornered it in a cul de sac. The car drove straight at the garda patrol car, damaging the wing and front wheel and three males wearing dark clothing with their faces covered got out and fled.
A short time later Jack O’Connell was caught nearby and arrested. He was taken to Kinsale Garda Station for questioning. It later emerged that the black Passat car was stolen and had cloned number plates that matched a vehicle for sale on the Done Deal website.
Mr Ó Donnabháin acknowledged that the ‘picture was extremely bad’ but added that Mr O’Connell was ‘clearly a man who struggles with addiction’. He said that if he was given ‘a last chance’ to live with his mother, he would try to deal with his addiction issues.
Mr O’Connell had already spent three months in prison when he was remanded in custody on the same charges in January before he was granted High Court bail. Mr Ó Donnabháin said that his client was trying to access addiction treatment services but still suffered ‘under the yoke of addiction’, and was apologetic and remorseful.
Mr O’Connell had 58 previous convictions for a variety of offences including road traffic, public order, drugs, and theft.
Judge Monika Leech said that the guilty plea which was ‘valuable to the State’ was a mitigating factor but that Mr O’Connell had an extremely lengthy list of previous convictions which displayed a very long litany of varying degrees of offending’.
For the theft in Ballinhassig he was sentenced to two months in prison, for the offence at Stone Well in Kinsale he was sentenced one month in prison. For the burglary of the motorcycle he was sentenced to five months in prison and for the unlawful taking of a vehicle he was sentenced to two months. The trespass charge was taken into consideration. The sentences are to run concurrently with immediate effect and Mr O’Connell is to be given credit for the time already served in prison.
