Woman gets eight years for preying on the elderly

A “career criminal” who preyed on elderly people alone in their homes has been given an eight-year sentence for a year-long string of crimes against vulnerable victims.

Alice Connors (aged 36), who has 86 previous convictions including 22 burglaries with victims ranging in age from 60 to 84, stole to feed her drug habit. The mother of three had children with her during some of her offences.

Connors, of Kiltalown Crescent, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to two burglaries, two attempted burglaries and stealing a purse at locations in the city centre and south Dublin on dates between October 2007 and October 2008.

Judge Katherine Delahunt said she had to take into account the number of offences and the type of victims targeted in these “heinous crimes”. She imposed consecutive sentences totaling eight years and suspended the final three years on strict conditions.

Garda Neil Fogarty told Ms Maire Torrens BL, prosecuting, that on October 2, 2007 an 82-year-old woman answered her front door after hearing rattling at the post box and a voice saying "it's Alice". A man barged into the house and the woman saw a female matching Connors' description behind him.

The woman told the pair she did not know them and asked them to leave. She saw the man shove something up his jumper before he left and later discovered her handbag was missing. She told gardaí she was crying and had “never got such a fright" or been afraid in her home before this incident.

Gda Fogarty said the woman's handbag was recovered from a wheelie bin and gardaí were able to recover fingerprints which they later matched to Connors fingerprints already on record.

The following day an 83-year-old woman was walking home from a shop when Connors held out her hand to her saying "I know you, shake hands". The woman continued to her home and her husband opened the door.

Connors put her arms around the woman's husband and left after the woman told her to get out. The woman later noticed €25 was missing from her wallet.

On October 1, 2007 an 84-year-old man, who had just returned from cashing his pension check in a city centre pub, heard his wife screaming from the kitchen. He saw Connors there who told him: "You are all right, I minded you."

The man shook Connors and told her to get out but she continued looking through drawers. The man said he was afraid for himself and his wife. Connors then ran out the front door with a "young chap" and his wife called the gardaí.

Garda Thomas Anderson said the neighbour of a 76-year-old woman called the gardaí on July 27, 2008 when she saw a woman, a teenage boy and a little girl tiptoe up the elderly woman’s driveway. She saw the boy try the door of a car then go into the house through a side door. The woman and child went to the front door.

The elderly women encountered the intruders in her hallway. They left when the woman’s neighbour came across the road and Connors was arrested shortly afterwards when the gardaí arrived.

Connors also attempted to steal from the home of a 24-year-old woman in south Dublin on July 27, 2008. The woman came downstairs to discover Connors and a child inside her home. Connors told her she was in the wrong house and left after the woman threw a drink at her.

Mr Michael Bowman BL, defending, said Connors had never sought to disguise herself and had never used any force against her victim greater then that needed to gain access to their homes.

He said Connors was in an abusive relationship and had started “self-medicating” after losing a child, progressing from Valium use to heroin addiction. He said she gave birth to her youngest child in prison and her children were now cared for by her family.

Mr Bowman said she accepted the severity of the offences and sought to express her contrition.