Altar wine thief to start six-month jail term on 22nd birthday

AN ALTAR wine thief found hiding in a confessional will today celebrate his birthday by beginning a six-month spell behind bars.

Yesterday, Darius Uriniez was sentenced for the second time in as many weeks for similar crimes at two different churches.

The Lithuanian, who turns 22 today, of Cois Locha, Doohamlet, Co Monaghan, was chased out of St Joseph’s Chapel in Monaghan on Sunday after he was discovered by the sacristan.

Uriniez, a digger driver, broke into the adjoining priest’s house to steal the keys of the chapel.

He returned later to steal the altar wine from the chapel. However, he claimed he was only trying to find a missing mobile phone.

Yesterday at Monaghan District Court he pleaded guilty to four charges relating to the crime. Judge Sean Martin McBride said the excuses put forward in Uriniez’s defence would not be accepted.

“What you did in both cases is sacrilegious,” the judge said.

””The story you tell, that you stole the keys so you could retrieve the mobile phone you claimed to have left behind the altar, is not believable.”

Last Thursday Uriniez was caught trying to perpetrate a similar crime at Doohamlet Chapel.

After being arrested he appeared before the district court at Ballybay, Co Monaghan, where he was given a two-month suspended sentence.

Yesterday Judge McBride decided on this occasion the defendant would have to serve time at Wheatfield Prison, Dublin.