Art student avoids jail over drunken attack on elderly couple in their home

An art student has been given an 18-month suspended sentence for breaking into an elderly couple’s home and attacking them.

Daryl Fitzsimons, aged 23, of St Mary’s Park, Leixlip, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to trespass and assaulting Thomas O’Doherty, aged 88, and his wife Rose, aged 86, causing them harm at their Dublin home on Jul 25, 2012.

The couple had been living in the house for 50 years without incident.