Homeless man broke into house to watch TV and drink beer
Carsten Mielke, 44, climbed in the window of a house on Orchard Rd, Bishopstown, Cork, on Sept 7 and sat down to a few hours of drinking beer, smoking, and watching television.
Mielke, originally from Carrigaline, Co Cork, has been homeless for the past three years and living in Simon and St Vincent de Paul hostels.
He pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of trespassing from 4pm to 10.30pm.
Inspector Joe O’Connor confirmed that though Mielke was pleading guilty to burglary, nothing was taken from the house.
The woman who owned the house returned at around 10.30pm to see Mielke outside the house. When she went in, she found cigarette butts and empty beer cans scattered around the sitting room and one of the bedrooms.
Nobody else was present while Mielke was in the house.
Gardaí were alerted and a few minutes later they found Mielke on College Rd. He matched the description given by the woman. He immediately admitted what he had done.
Eddie Burke, solicitor, said that in effect what Mielke had done was squatting, albeit for a short period. He had done so because he was cold and had nowhere to go.
Insp O’Connor said there was another incident involving Mielke at Bishop Lucey Park where he was drunk and verbally abusive to passers-by and later gave gardaí a false name.
Judge Leo Malone fined him a €350 in respect of the public order incident and imposed a four-month jail sentence for trespassing. As Mielke has been in custody in relation to the matter since Nov 25, 2013, the sentence was backdated to that date.
