A man who destroyed Victorian gravestones in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, to the value of €100,000 has been given a year to pay €3,000 in compensation before he is sentenced by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Yvonne Murphy remanded him on continuing bail until July 11th, 2006, and said she would impose a suspended sentence then if he did not come to Garda attention within that period.
Brian O'Connell (18), Doolinstown, Trim, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawful use of a mechanical digger and criminal damage of the digger, a lawnmower, a tractor and over 40 gravestone monuments on February 17th, 2003.
He changed his plea from not guilty following legal argument on day three of his trial in February.
The court heard that staff arrived at the cemetery on February 18th, 2003 and found a mechanical digger had been driven through it and a large number of monuments had been destroyed.
The digger had been used as a battering ram to smash 48 monuments in an area called QC Walk. The monuments dated from 1835 and were described by George McCullough, chief executive of the Dublin Cemeteries Committee, as "some of the finest examples of Victorian sculpture and stone masonry in the world today". He valued the damage at €100,000. The jury also heard the digger, used to dig graves, had been crashed in the cemetery and had an estimated €16,000 in damage. Over €1,000 of damage was also done to a lawnmower and tractor. The owner of the digger, Frank Fanning, a civil engineering contractor, said in a statement that the person who started the mechanical digger would have had a good knowledge of such vehicles.
Sgt Bob O'Reilly agreed with Tom O'Connell SC, defending, that O'Connell was in the company of two others on the night in question. They were arrested but not prosecuted.
Sgt O'Reilly accepted that O'Connell had not deliberately set out to damage the gravestones and was sorry for what he had done. He agreed with counsel that O'Connell had been drinking all day in the graveyard with the two others before the damage was caused.
Mr O'Connell told Judge Yvonne Murphy that this kind of offence violated one of life's enduring principles: respect for the place where the dead are laid to rest. He said that if this had been carried out by an adult it would be considered "incorrigible barbarism", but in his client's case one hoped that it was no more than the actions of a disturbed adolescent.
He said his client initially elected for trial to dispute the charges against him because he did not want to take full responsibility for the damage caused when he believed his companions had participated in it.