Burglars rob Cork pensioner of €11,600 saved for funeral

Burglars tied up a woman, who had saved €11,600 to pay for her funeral, with her daughter, who has cerebral palsy.

Both were left in a terrified state as three raiders fled with a bag of cash from a bedside locker.

The 66-year-old victim said she had saved the money for her funeral so her children would not be burdened with the costs.

Detective Garda Niall Hayes testified yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that three raiders, including an accused Ciara Beamish, used the money to pay a drug debt in Dublin and to pay for their travel to England.

Beamish, aged 24, threatened to use a hammer and a knife on the victims when the house was being searched for cash.

She was jailed yesterday for six years with the last two years suspended for the burglary and another crime of false imprisonment of the victims.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “These are appalling crimes where this young woman, who was in equal part in each of these crimes, set about vulnerable people and applied to those vulnerable people as much violence as was necessary to achieve her aims.”

Kieran Hughes, defending, asked the judge to take into consideration her plea of guilty and the fact she was in the grips of a heroin addiction at the time of the offences.

Detective Garda Hayes said Beamish, with an address at 24 Kilbrogan Court, Bandon, Co Cork, carried out a burglary at a house at Hunters Green, Mahon, Cork, on July 28 last year while carrying a knife. She was also charged with falsely imprisoning two women at the house on that date.

In a second case involving Beamish, a 70-year-old man was terrified in his own home when she called to his home and then let her boyfriend in to hold the pensioner captive by knifepoint.

Detective Garda Brian Maher said Beamish went to the man’s home on the pretence of getting back some property she had left there previously. When homeless she had stayed at the man’s house a number of times, the detective said.

“She and her boyfriend demanded thousands of euro from him. They got €700 from his wallet and demanded more. A knife was produced,” Det Garda Maher said.

She admitted charges of falsely imprisoning the man at his home at Chetwynd Cross, Douglas Road, Cork, between July 15 and 16 last year, aggravated burglary where she had a knife while trespassing at the house, and entering a premises in Ballincollig in order to steal.

It was further stated that, during this incident, Beamish’s accomplice got the key of a premises in Ballincollig where the complainant worked and that he went there and stole a further €600 in cash from that property.

He had warned the injured party not to give him the wrong key or the wrong code for the alarm system at the premises.

When her accomplice went to Ballincollig, Beamish stayed with the victim holding him at knifepoint and refusing to let him move around or go to the toilet.

At one stage, he made a run for the door and she tried to close the door on him as he attempted to get away. There was a struggle after which he got out, made his way to a neighbour and raised the alarm.

Beamish left the scene and was later arrested.