A man who robbed the same church three times, as well as two other premises within four months, has been imprisoned for two and a half years.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that David Carroll (48), of Dorset Lane, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty to three counts of theft at St Francis Xavier Church on Gardiner Street, one count of theft at Erin College, North Great George Street and one count of burglary from an apartment in Dublin City Centre.
All incidents took place on various dates between December 2023 and April 2024.
He has 30 previous convictions.
Passing sentence on Friday, Judge Orla Crowe said Carroll “has a considerable amount of previous convictions” and “has been offending since his early twenties”, referring to them as “start and stop convictions”.
Judge Crowe said Carroll “received a diploma in addiction studies and did very well for a number of years but relapsed and was back before this court and others”.
The judge said the aggravating factors that she would take into consideration is that the same church was targeted three times, that one offence took place in a domestic setting and that none of the items taken were recovered.
She said the mitigating factors are Carroll’s guilty pleas, his admissions and co-operation with gardaí. She also noted his personal circumstances and the letter of apology before the court.
Judge Crowe said that this offending “will have to have a custodial sentence” and sentenced him to three years in prison, which she backdated to when he went into custody in April of this year.
The judge said, “the court will give him some light at the end of the tunnel”, and suspended the final six months of his sentence for 12 months. She also placed him under the supervision of the Probation Services for 12 months.
Detective Garda Aaron Connell told Simon Donagh BL, prosecuting, that all five burglaries happened between December 2023 and April 2024, and CCTV footage was available which could identify Carroll on each occasion.
The court heard that the gardaí were contacted in December 2023 after a security alarm was activated at St Francis Xavier Church on Gardiner Street. A priest saw that a window had been broken and donations had been taken.
On March 8th, 2024, gardaí were alerted to a break-in at an apartment in Dublin city centre. A woman left her apartment at 1.30pm and was contacted by her neighbour and landlord at 3pm to say there had been a break-in.
When the woman returned to her apartment, she found it had been ransacked. Items worth €750 had been taken. CCTV showed a man, later identified as Carroll, leaving the area carrying a brown bag.
Two-and-a-half weeks later, Carroll was identified again using CCTV after a theft took place at Erin College on North Great George Street.
He could be seen walking into the college and leaving a short time later with a bag. A laptop which belonged to a lecturer and items from students’ bags had also been taken.
Det Gda Connell said that on March 13th and April 16th, 2024, Carroll targeted St Francis Xavier Church again.
On the first occasion, he broke in at night and took €200 in church donations, and on the second occasion, he went behind the counter in the church shop while it was unattended and took donations. He was interrupted by a staff member who shouted at him, and he ran off.
None of the items or money taken by Carroll were ever recovered. He was arrested for all five offences on April 29th, 2024.
During his interview ,he made admissions and identified himself on CCTV footage. The detective accepted that the motivation behind each offence was to feed his drug habit.
Det Gda Connell agreed with Luigi Rea, BL, defending, his client had several close personal tragedies over a short period of time.
The garda agreed with counsel that Carroll had become homeless at one point as the hostel that he had been living in had become a crime scene.
Mr Rea said his client had a drug addiction in the past and had gotten clean before relapsing due to several deaths close to him. He told the court that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Narcotics Anonymous in-person meetings stopped, which affected his client.
He said Carroll is now on a reduced methadone regime in custody.
Counsel said Carroll has received a diploma in addiction studies from Dublin Business School in the past.
Mr Rea handed in documents to the court on behalf of Carroll, one of which was a letter of apology.
