Teen burglar given five years after attacks on elderly

A teenage burglar from Dublin has been given a five-year sentence following a series of offences in Kildare and Dublin, two of them against elderly women.

Margaret Cawley - who is now 20 - pushed her way into an 85-year-old woman's home to take her handbag in 2008 and a year later stole the handbag of an 80-year-old woman.

Cawley with addresses at Daletree Place and Montpellier Walk in Tallaght pleaded guilty to three burglaries in Leixlip, Glasnevin and Killiney, and stealing a handbag at The Rise, Mount Merrion in Dublin.

Judge Katherine Delahunt noted that two of her victims were elderly people and that the court would not tolerate attacks on the elderly.

She imposed consecutive sentences totaling five years but suspended the final two years on strict conditions.