Nun found man in her bed

A nun found a man sleeping in her bed at a convent, a court heard.

On alerting other sisters, gardaí were called to the Presentation Convent, Roxboro Rd, Limerick.

When Garda Paul Howard got to the convent shortly after 9am on Aug 28, Matthew Leverett, 30, was still asleep in the nun’s bed.

Leverett, on being awoken, told Garda Howard he got into the convent via a downstairs window and went upstairs for a sleep.

Leverett, originally from Britain, of no fixed abode and with a previous address at Annacarty, Co Tipperary, pleaded guilty at Limerick District Court to entering the convent as a trespasser in a manner likely to cause fear.

His solicitor, Darach McCarthy, said it was Leverett’s sole intention to get somewhere to rest. There was nothing sinister and Leverett did not realise it was a convent.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly said Leverett had accessed the bedroom of a member of a religious order and this must have been alarming and distressing for the nun.

If Leverett needed to rest, Judge O’Kelly said, he could have lain down on a sofa rather than gone to the nun’s bedroom.

Mr McCarthy said Leverett did not know the layout of the convent.

The court heard Leverett had 22 convictions and has a two-year, seven-month suspended term over him from Clonmel Circuit Court.

Judge O’Kelly remanded Leverett to Clonmel Circuit Court on Jan 15 for activation of the suspended sentence.

Following that hearing, Leverett will be brought back to Limerick District Court for sentence for the convent offence.