Investigating criminals: why they reoffend and what to do about it
ON any given day, one of the busiest places in any town will be the building that houses the District Court.
These complexes are routinely thronged with people on either side of the law. The ultimate intention is that the punishments meted out during the daily sittings are enough to ensure that the people facing charges do not come back.
For many, these rooms are the final straw or the embarrassing result of a once-off indiscretion.
However, there is a minority for whom these courts become an all too familiar function room.
People are paraded before the same judges as the courtrooms become the reluctant nursery for a succession of similar trips. These are the career criminals who become comfortable with the surroundings before, almost inevitably, graduating to face charges at a higher court.
Every day, reports from district courts run through newspapers such as this one, where the focus is justifiably on the most recent conviction and the punishments handed down.
However, these reports, as is evidenced by recent examples summarised across these pages, are also a testament to growing problem in the Irish justice system.
A cohort of convicts are not deterred by the sentences available to the courts.
This includes peoples who, despite more than 100 previous convictions, still find themselves back before judges, having committed similar offences — or worse.
Statistics released just before Christmas show that the rate at which people are inclined to reoffend after getting a conviction is worse than in other countries.
More than half of people who were convicted of a crime in 2008 were guilty of another offence within three years.
The trend was most evident in the relatively minor public order offences, but also a pattern in the most serious crimes in the statute book.
Sexual offences were the stand-out category for which reoffending rates were low among those sent down in 2008. However, these offenders were the exception rather than the rule.
The case studies detailed to the right reveal many of the issues which complicated the problem facing the prison and probation services, the courts, legislators, support agencies, and the families of those convicted.
There are serial petty criminals who can clock up scores of convictions for similar offences despite facing incrementally longer sentences.
There are those with persistent mental health and addiction problems who are bounced about the system as a testament to the State’s dismal record on mental health reform.
In the case of Jason Curry, aged 23, of Leighlin Rd, Crumlin, Dublin, who had 25 previous convictions, Judge Mary Ellen Ring remarked that his atrocious upbringing meant that he may never have had a chance.
In previous generations, the State’s answer to the potential hazards of poor family lives was to incarcerate from an early age.
Traveller families in particular were targeted by the “Cruelty Man”, a nickname given to the ISPCC, and were convicted of crimes at very young ages as a means of effectively splitting families up.
The result of this policy was generations of children imprisoned in violent industrial schools and residential homes, with scant support and little opportunity to lead normal lives.
The legacy of this policy jumps off the pages of the Ryan Report, and has caused protracted psychological problems for those affected.
When this policy was phased out in the 1980s and the State stopped seeing the criminal justice system as a childcare strategy, nothing took its place. The fate of one key institution in the intervening period charts this.
In 1985, economist TK Whittaker, in a report on St Patrick’s juvenile prison, said it was nearly impossible to expect young inmates to emerge better from this institution.
“Rehabilitation is not possible as the physical and environmental conditions are such as to nullify any personal developmental programmes. The facilities and services required could not be provided even in a renovated St Patrick’s,” his report read.
In 2012, St Patrick’s remained the go-to place for repeat young offenders until Judge Michael Reilly, the inspector of prisons, published a depressingly similar commentary of the place in June 2012.
“In St Patrick’s, I met many prisoners who complained that they would leave without in any way having bettered themselves. Prisoners in other prisons who had spent their earlier life in St Patrick’s told similar stories,” wrote Mr Justice Reilly.
“I am satisfied that this is true. It is an indictment of St Patrick’s that many prisoners leave without having had a chance to better themselves.”
Litanies of petty crimes may blight the lives of many young people, but chronic reoffending is not the preserve of the lesser offences.
Statistics show that there are the more sinister cases where repeat offenders spend long periods in jail only to emerge to commit similar or worse crimes.
The 2008 recidivism figures were released by the CSO just before Christmas.
When he reviewed the report, Justice Minister Alan Shatter said they were unacceptable.
Mr Shatter said that the pressures on prisons had made it harder to support convicts in such a way as to limit return visits.
“I am aware that increases in prisoner numbers, in recent years, has placed great pressure on the Irish Prison Service and has limited its capacity to deliver appropriate rehabilitative services to prisoners aimed at reducing recidivism,” said Mr Shatter.
“Our prisons are not intended to be mere warehouses for criminals and I am confident that recent initiatives introduced by the Irish Prison Service such as the Incentivised Regimes Programme and the Community Return Programme have resulted in a prison system with an increased emphasis on rehabilitation.”
However, long-term projections are of little use to those who the figures show are almost in a hurry to offend again. For the class of 2008, two thirds of those who reoffended did so within six months of their initial conviction, although these figures are weighted by the imbalance created by the volume of young men who found themselves back in court versus young women.
However, even within those figures, the notion of a deterrent seems alien in some cases. In the most serious category, homicide, 47% of people who were convicted of an offence in 2008 had reoffended by the end of 2011.
Given the serious nature of the crime, the overall number of people in this category was small, but the second crimes were still serious and included murder threats, robbery, and dangerous acts.
In another violent area, assault and murder threats, people were most likely to reoffend by breaching one of the public order acts.
However, 10% of those convicted in 2008 of this type of crime went on to be convicted of another, similar offence within three years.
It is worth remembering that many of those who are sentenced for such crimes have spent, at the very least, a significant portion of that three-year study period in prison.
An area of particularly pronounced recidivism has been those found guilty of theft and burglary.
In both categories, more than half of those who reoffended within three years found themselves charged with either a theft or burglary offence on the second occasion.
Separately, a recent study by the Irish Prison Service found that this group of criminal had by far the highest recidivism rate.
It is easy to characterise criminals at the moment of conviction and judge them only on the gravity of the hurt they caused.
However, each judge, in the District Court and above, must also consider the circumstances which led to each person getting to this stage.
Sentencing hearings are littered with stories of desperate upbringings, addiction, and illness. Many of the cases profiled on these pages include particular reference to problems in younger life, homelessness, and addiction issues.
Paul Sheehan, communications officer with the Simon Community in Cork, said it was a desperate reality that those who are homeless are more likely to be offend, and they are more likely to receive longer sentences.
He said it was also the case that people were being discharged from prison straight back into the care of homeless services, with no long-term accommodation plan or structure to help the person build a crime-free, stable life.
He said people who are homeless are less likely to find employment, more likely to have mental health problems, and will statistically be brought before the courts more often.
He said it is a complex issue but the facts were stark.
The Irish Prison Service, and the Probation Service, are aware of the problems and the challenges they face. Programmes such as the pilot community return programme, aimed at easing the transition from prison, are aimed at improving people’s prospects of building a crime-free life after a sentence. In the joint strategic plan for the two bodies for 2013 to 2015, they accepted there needed to be a complete shift in mindset.
“If we are to really succeed in reconnecting offenders back to their communities, then we must devise a model which involves a multiplicity of state, community, and voluntary agencies working in partnership on behalf of individual communities to bring about real change in the lives of offenders,” read the plan.
“For the majority of those incarcerated, similar criminogenic needs and risks exist, many of which are often interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Lack of employment, abuse of alcohol and drugs, anti-social attitude and companions, emotional and personal difficulties, poor educational achievement, family problems, and lack of housing or accommodation are prominent among them.”
In April 2013, Sherlock used a homemade weapon to carry out a vicious attack on a woman who was going out with her brother.
She believed the victim was cheating on her brother so Sherlock, a mother of a young girl, stabbed her 22 times while she was lying in a prostrate state.
The attack took place on a school ground in Ennis and afterwards Sherlock walked up O’Connell St in a bloodied state to steal a bottle of vodka.
She had 45 previous convictions.
Charlene Sherlock had 45 previous convictions when she carried out a vicious attack on a woman who was going out with her brother
Karl Harford was convicted in December after pleading guilty to charges brought after he was stopped at a Garda checkpoint carrying a petrol bomb,
Since 2007, when he completed his Junior Certificate, he clocked up 140 convictions for various offences including drug dealing, assault, and many driving issues.
When he was stopped on Nov 5, 2010 he had a glass jar filled with jellified petrol. It was primed with a wick sticking out.
He was sentenced to eight years in jail, but the final two years were suspended.
With 90 previous convictions against him, Heaphy was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of rape.
His criminal history involved crimes of burglary, robbery, car theft, and the possession of knives.
His most recent conviction happened after he sneaked into a woman’s room as she slept and raped her. Her young children were in the house at the time.
During his sentencing hearing, the judge was told Heaphy had come from a chaotic family background.
Short was sentenced to serve four years in jail when he shot his friend dead while playing around with a loaded gun.
He pleaded guilty and said it was an accident with an illegally held firearm. He had 28 previous convictions, mostly for public order and road traffic offences.
In Aug 2011, Shane O’Farrell, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Monaghan. Gridzuiska was convicted of failing to stop at the scene and he was given an eight-month suspended sentence.
He had 42 previous convictions. Nine were related to driving offences, while others included drugs offences, theft, and handling stolen property.
Zigimantas Gridzuiska: Convicted of failing to stop at the scene of a hit and run. He had 42 previous convictions.
In November, Conway was jailed for three years after he assaulted a man with a bottle, leaving him scarred for life.
The assault was a spillover from a nightclub argument and the result left the victim needing plastic surgery. He is unable open and close his mouth freely.
Conway had 20 previous convictions — three for assault and two relating to his possession of offensive weapons.
O’Driscoll is currently serving a four- and-a-half year sentence for driving a car that was involved in the attempted robbery of a home in Coachford, Co Cork. He pleaded guilty in November.
The robbery was unsuccessful because the man in the house stood his ground and the culprits fled.
O’Driscoll had 80 convictions already for crimes including burglary and robbery.
In May 2013, Twomey armed himself with a knife and attacked a man who was walking home from a night out in Cork City.
The victim was dragged down an laneway and mugged. Twomey was given a three-year sentence, with the last 18 months suspended.
He had 32 previous convictions.
In November, Cash was jailed after pleading guilty to her part in a gang that targeted rural homes for burglary. She had looked to distract an elderly woman by asking for a drink. This was in order to facilitate a raid on the house at Castlemaine, Co Kerry.
She was told she would have to spend at least two years in prison for her crimes as she had 201 previous convictions.
Winnie Cash had 201 previous convictions when she was jailed for facilitating a raid on an elderly woman’s home.
The culprit already had 98 convictions to his name when he appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court for burglary.
He had broken into the bedsit of a Bulgarian waitress who had been making lunch in a kitchen that was linked to a communal hall.
When she returned, her belongings had been taken. Corcoran was sentenced to 18 months after he pleaded guilty.
Before this, he had clocked up his 99th conviction after he was jailed for eight months for smashing a window of a car parked on the Carrigrohane Rd and stealing from it.
He was only caught after a member of the public managed to photograph him on their phone.
After an apartment in the North Gate block in Cork City had its door kicked in and its contents plundered, Foley was found to have stolen €1,500 worth of goods.
It was argued the apartment was unoccupied so the thieves took the contents of the property including kitchen appliances.
Foley had 85 previous convictions and had longstanding addiction difficulties.
On Nov 12, 2011, O’Connor murdered an English father of four at a flat in Bandon. He was badly beaten and had been choked. His skull was fractured, his mouth was cut, and his neck was badly injured.
Broken crockery was found to have been used as part of the attack and he was tied up with a belt from O’Connor’s cardigan before he was dumped in the river.
The victim’s blood was found on a phone in O’Connor’s neighbouring flat, and she had told another couple that she had killed the Englishman. His death came after she and her partner killed another man, who was beaten and stabbed and choked with an electrical cable. He had 100 separate injuries to his body before he was dumped into the same river.
She stood trial twice this year and was convicted of murdering both men. She had 54 other convictions before her two for murder.
Previously, she had lived rough in Cork City and had addiction problems. She had come to Bandon from rehab.
The man responsible for a vicious and sustained beating of a grandfather to death after an argument had 17 previous convictions including crimes of false imprisonment and serious assault.
It started with a drinking session in Waterford and ended with Keating and two women kicking the 60-year-old victim to death. In April 2013, Keating hit the man, who he had been drinking with, across the head with a dumbbell numerous times before jumping on his head. He was convicted of murder.
These two men were among a number of protesters who rioted and fired missiles at gardaí during the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth to the Garden of Remembrance in May 2011.
They have pleaded guilty to the crimes and will be sentenced in March. Griffin has 71 previous convictions for offences including drugs, theft, and public order, while Tyrell has 34 for public order theft, criminal damage, road traffic, and having a knife.
Michael Tyrell, above, fired missiles at gardaí during Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland in 2011
In 2006, Curry stabbed his aunt’s partner. In 2009, he was acquitted of killing another man. And in June 2012, he stabbed a friend in the chest and stomach and left him with life-threatening injuries. Curry had 25 previous convictions. At his most recent sentencing hearing, the judge said Curry had grown up in “atrocious and tragic family circumstances” and that he had fallen “into contact with the justice system from an early age”.
“Perhaps he never had a chance at the start but he has done nothing while at liberty to better himself,” Judge Mary Ellen Ring said.
With 20 convictions for aggravated burglary, burglary, robbery, and possession of firearms, Murray told a woman collecting her son from school that he needed help because someone was dying.
He played on her desire to help to coax her into an apartment in Dublin City. He threatened to kill her son and imprisoned him before dropping him to a public square at 11pm. All the while the woman was tied to a radiator, gagged.
He returned to the apartment to continue a brutal series of crimes involving rape, rape with an object, assault, and attempted oral rape.
While her son was in the apartment, he threatened her and the boy. When she finally broke free at 5am, she had to frantically search the premises, believing her son was still locked inside.
Over the course of 20 years, O’Sullivan earned 195 convictions, and in 2013 was sentenced for nine months in jail for stealing wallets around University College Cork.
The court was told she had long standing difficulties in relation to dependency concerns. The judge said that, notwithstanding her problems, he had to take account of the large number of crimes she had committed.
The DPP went to the Court of Criminal Appeal to ensure McDonagh got a longer sentence after he broke into a 97-year-old woman’s home and threatened to kill her. He assaulted her and stole her purse. He had already been sentenced to 12 years in England for breaking into an elderly woman’s home and tying her up.
He had 48 previous convictions and 26 of them were for burglary. The DPP said this meant his initial six-year jail term was too lenient. Its appeal said he had an appalling record for committing such crimes throughout his life.
The appeal court agreed and increased it by four years.
