Conviction delays marriage plans
James Delaney and his accomplice were found wearing gloves when gardaí carried out a search on the second floor of the derelict Odlums building at Kennedy Quay in Cork. They told investigating officers they were just looking for scrap.
Both men pleaded guilty to trespassing on the building on May 10, 2015.
Aggravating the situation for James Delaney, aged 27, of 1 The Pier, Bantry, was the fact that he had a six-month suspended jail term hanging over him at the time.
When the Cork burglary was brought to the attention of the judge in the circuit court, that effectively triggered the activation of the six-month term.
Solicitor Shane Collins-Daly said that, unfortunately, the accused also had another six months added to that sentence, leaving him with a total of a year in jail.
About two months before the Odlum’s premises offence occurred, Delaney got the suspended jail term at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. That arose out of a crime committed in Bantry where he made a threat to kill or cause serious injury to a person.
“He was to be married this year but that had to be postponed,” Mr Collins-Daly said. Judge Olann Kelleher said he would not add to the total time to be served by Delaney and imposed eight months from yesterday. That will run concurrently with the 12 months.
Inspector Eileen Foster said yesterday at Cork District Court that Delaney and the second man — previously dealt with for his part in the burglary — would have had to scale a perimeter wall to get on to the property and they had no permission to be in the building.
Mr Collins-Daly said there was no question of breaking locks or causing damage to property to get into the Odlums premises. The solicitor said they got over a fence and got into the building which was derelict and abandoned.
Insp Foster said there was a lot of machinery stored in the premises at the time.
