A carer has been jailed for eight years after she preyed on six vulnerable pensioners she previously nursed, stole €34,000 and carried out violent burglaries with a knife-armed college student.
Precious Moyo, 38, who lived at the Athlone Accommodation Center at Lissywollen, Athlone, Co Westmeath, and was originally from Zimbabwe, was sentenced at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday.
Her accomplice, 20-year-old engineering student Yamen Alhamada, from Syria but with an address at Warren Grove, Boyle, Co Roscommon, was imprisoned for six years.
They had pleaded guilty to a spate of burglary and aggravated burglary offences described by Judge Keenan Johnson as heartbreaking and callous.
"Lock them up for a long time because they are evil," were the words of one of the victims.
Judge Keenan Johnson said Moyo, a mother of three, had worked for a home help agency for a year, where she developed "intimate" knowledge about the households of the six elderly men and women aged 73 to 89 suffering from serious health problems.
Judge Johnson had said he could not express his horror at the pair's actions and emphasised that the offences were callous, breached the victims’ trust, leaving them isolated, vulnerable and terrified.
He accepted that Moyo was the main offender in the premeditated crimes, which represented a fundamental of trust, and she had abused her position in a most appalling way.
Their crimes happened after Moyo was let go from an agency following complaints.
Sentencing, Judge Johnson said the court had to send out a message, and it was clear the victims were traumatised, and their “crime spree” resulted in permanent life changes with some no longer living independently, others in “constant fear”.
Their crimes damaged the reputation of genuine refugees, the vast majority of whom, he stressed, were law-abiding and contributed to Irish society. He added that he did not want people to highlight this case as being indicative of refugees.
Relieved victims and their families watched the proceedings via video link.
Accomplice Alhamada, who had come to Ireland with family to escape the war in his country, claimed to gardaí that he went along with Moyo because she was "into black magic called juju, and he would be protected if he did what she said."
Judge Johnson had also directed that €35,000 from fines imposed in a recent unrelated health and safety prosecution should go to the victims.
Probation reports and character references on the duo, who had no prior convictions, were furnished to the court.
The defence pleaded with Judge Johnson to note the early guilty pleas avoided a substantial trial with around 100 witnesses and further traumatisation of the elderly victims.
Counsel submitted the court could give a 30 per cent reduced sentence because they had expressed remorse for assaulting and "terrorising" the victims and had the prospect of rehabilitation.
In mitigation pleas, the court heard Moyo moved to Ireland five years ago to escape a violent marriage, and isolation from family led to depression and drug addiction, and she "never thought about the victims and what this distorted deviancy would do to them."
Her father's death when she was 13 also impacted her, and there were claims of abuse by older men in her community, and she had suffered serious health problems.
Alhamada had experienced trauma from the war in Syria when he was a child. After moving to Ireland with his family, he performed well in school, played GAA and soccer, and went to college in Athlone.
But he "spiralled out of control" from cannabis and alcohol abuse that led to a €12,000 drug debt with pressure to pay, and he "never thought of the victims of these offences when he was committing them".
Neither defendant addressed the court or showed any emotion.
One of the victims passed away three months after they pleaded guilty.
Four incidents occurred in housing estates in Athlone and another at a house about five kilometres outside the town between June 14 and September 8th last year.
The judge praised the "massive" and "painstaking" investigation that led to their arrest.
The probe involved harvesting crucial CCTV footage from various locations to track their movements around the town and analysing fingerprints and DNA. One segment of video footage showed Moyo holding wads of money in a shop.
Garda Detectives Niall Cogavin and Kenneth Nerney outlined the evidence against the pair.
The court heard the victims were traumatised; three of them were attacked in their homes, and the former carer “menacingly” warned one, "We'll be back".
