Mother and daughter living in fear after man broke into home

AN invalid who is mostly confined to her bedroom yesterday told a court of her terror when a Latvian man forced his way into her home.

Ann Thuillier, a mother of three, told yesterday how her world changed on March 9 last when Latvian national Yanis Skudra, aged 23, forced his way into her home at Newtown, Castletroy, Co Limerick.

Mrs Thuillier suffers from the chronic fatigue condition ME, and the 56-year-old has spent 95% of her time within the confines of her bedroom at home in Limerick for the past four years.

She told of how Skudra sipped from a bottle of brandy which he took from a drinks cabinet. He terrified Mrs Thuillier and her daughter Danielle, aged 23. He ordered them at gunpoint around the house looking for money.

Speaking from a wheelchair at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, Mrs Thuillier said her bedroom was her world due to her illness. Now she is terrified to be on her own.

She told Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin: “Even if a six-year-old child approaches me with a hoodie on, I get really terrified as he (Skudra) had a hoodie on.”

She said the sound of a foreign accent brings the afternoon of March 9 back.

“Even a person on TV pointing a gun on screen, I can get very frightened about it. I needed counselling for seven weeks.”

Her daughter Danielle Thuillier recalled how Skudra pushed his way into the home at around 3pm in the afternoon after she answered the front door.

For the next half hour, he ordered the two around the house with what appeared to be a gun, and helped himself to brandy and cigarettes.

As he went through her underwear, Danielle said he looked her up and down in a sexual way and lit up a cigarette.

She told the court: “It was the worst experience of my life. I was afraid what he would do to me. I am now freaked out about my own security in my own house. I am afraid that he must have friends who know where we are.”

Det Sgt Kevin McHugh told the court he went to the Thuillier home with Det Garda James Ruddle after receiving a 999 call.

The court heard that Mrs Thullier had managed to put out the 999 call on her mobile phone when the accused wasn’t watching. He had earlier taken her cordless landline phone she had in her room.

The gardaí got there at 3.30pm. After getting into the house, they apprehended Skudra who threw a gun on the sofa of the sitting room. It turned out to be an imitation gun.

Skudra pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning Mrs Thuillier and her daughter and to aggravated burglary using an imitation firearm.

Det Sgt McHugh told the court Skudra had convictions in his native country. He had only been in the country a short time.

The court heard Skudra had pleaded guilty to a similar offence in Wexford days before he arrived in Limerick. Sentencing, the court was told, had been deferred in the Wexford case to await a psychiatric report.

Judge Ó Donnabháin adjourned yesterday’s case to January 25 for mention and remanded Skudra in custody pending the psychiatric report.