Intoxicated burglar fell asleep on homeowner’s bed
Michael McDermott, aged 43, was still sleeping in the box room when the home-owner son’s saw that the house had been broken into.
This man and his brother then dragged McDermott out into the front garden before gardaí arrived.
Garda Richard Carroll said McDermott was so intoxicated he had concerns for his welfare and an ambulance was called. The burglar had cut himself, having smashed a window.
McDermott, of Tomagaddy, Ballycanew, Gorey, Co Wexford, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary in Coolock, Dublin, on January 23, 2016. He has 95 previous convictions.
Judge Melanie Greally jailed McDermott for three years.
She accepted that he had taken a large number of tablets before breaking into the house and said it was apparent to gardaí he needed medical treatment.
Garda Carroll told Fiona Murphy, prosecuting, that McDermott spent a night in hospital and was arrested almost two weeks later for questioning.
He admitted he had taken tablets that day in his mother’s home and had a row with her when he was caught trying to light a fire in his bedroom.
He left there before wandering around and breaking into the house in Coolock.
He said he got in through a window before looking around and “putting some stuff together”.
He used the toilet before falling asleep on a bed upstairs.
McDermott said he had been in “a bad way” and could barely remember what he was doing that day.
Garda Carroll agreed with Diarmuid Collins, defending, McDermott was described by the homeowner’s sons as being “out of his mind”. He accepted he had injured himself and had apologised to the victims during interview.
Counsel said McDermott had a 30-year drug addiction he managed to beat in 2013 and moved to Manchester.
Mr Collins said McDermott came back to Ireland some time later when his father died, re-engaged with his old peer group, and started abusing drugs and committing crime again.
