Burglar jailed as fingerprints on window link him to scene of crime

A burglar was jailed for seven months yesterday after fingerprints on an apartment window linked him to the scene of his crime where he stole a €2,000 laptop.

At Cork District Court, Detective Sergeant Tim Murphy said the crime was committed at The Elms, Wentworth Gardens, Bishopstown, Cork.

The culprit got into the property via a downstairs window and got away with a Macbook computer and a handbag worth €200.

Investigators dusted for fingerprints and found them around the burglar’s entry point. They matched the prints of William O’Driscoll, 28, of 53 Killala Gardens, Knocknaheeny, Cork.

Det Sgt Murphy said when O’Driscoll was interviewed about the July 16-17, 2014 burglary he admitted the crime. O’Driscoll followed that admission to gardaí with a plea of guilty in court yesterday.

Det Sgt Murphy said O’Driscoll had 108 previous convictions, including eight for theft.

He was serving a sentence of over 17 months since last October for other crimes. Judge Leo Malone made yesterday’s sentence consecutive to the sentence he was already serving.

None of the stolen property from the Bishopstown apartment was recovered.

Donal Daly, solicitor, told Judge Malone that realistically there was no hope of the accused gathering compensation for the owner of the stolen property.

“He is a chronic drug and alcohol abuser since the age of 12 or 13. In fact he was not in the best condition when he committed the burglary and has no recollection of it.

“The vast majority of his crimes are committed in order to feed his habit. He has a very bad background situation with the serious alcohol problems and health issues,” Mr Daly said.

Judge Malone took account of previous convictions when he imposed the consecutive seven-month sentence. The longer sentence, to which it will be added, was imposed at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.