Thief who defecated in Garda interview room jailed

A serial thief who deliberately defecated in the corner of an interview room while being questioned by gardaí has been jailed for 16 months.

Alan Stone (33) told gardaí a number of times during his interview that he needed to go to the toilet and the gardaí offered to escort him back to his cell to use the facilities. He refused to return to his cell but continued to insist that he had to go to the bathroom.

Stone eventually went to the corner of the interview room, pulled down his trousers and underwear, squatted and defecated, using the seal from the video tapes of interview to wipe himself.

Garda John Altendorf told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the room was cleared for health and safety reasons and the interview came to an end.

Stone of Amien Street, Dublin pleaded guilty to stealing two boxes of Fairy Liquid Tabs worth €16 from Centra, Dame Street and damaging an interview room by defecating on the floor on April 28th, 2015. He has 165 previous convictions, mainly for theft.

Garda Altendorf told Roisin Lacey BL, prosecuting, it was his understanding Stone regularly stole the detergent products to sell on in order to fund his chronic heroin addiction.

He agreed with Judge Martin Nolan that it was an unusual way to source income to fund a drug addiction. "I have never come across it before."

The judge replied that it was “new in this court”. He jailed Stone for 16 months adding that if he managed to stay away from drugs he had “a good chance of reform”.

Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, said having read the book of evidence and “the ugliness that surrounds it” he approached his first consultation with Stone with “some trepidation”. But he said his client was both mortified and disgusted by what he had done.

Counsel said Stone’s story was a lesson for “how far someone can fall due to drug use”.

He said Stone had left school with a good Leaving Certificate before working in IT support for a bank following a year at a third level course. He then travelled for some time before returning to Ireland to work in a call centre and then later on an oil jetty in Dublin Port.

Mr Le Vert said in 2008, when Stone lost his job at Dublin Port and his parents separated, his client, who had been using cocaine “recreationally”, graduated to heroin abuse.

He said Stone’s mother would not accept the addiction and “put him out of the house”. He became homeless and found himself in “the throes of a serious addiction”.

Mr Le Vert said it was at that time, when Stone was 26 years old, that he started to come to Garda attention, mainly due to stealing food and other items that he could sell on.

Counsel said Stone came from an extremely respectable family who were now willing to accept him back into their homes as he was stable on a methadone programme in prison and was due to be placed on an enhanced regime.

Garda Altendorf told Ms Lacey that a staff worker saw Stone came into Centra on Dame Street about 5pm that evening. He had wounds on his head and was carrying a bag. The staff was suspicious of him and later spotted him putting something in the bag and passing by the till without paying for it.

The security guard from the shop stopped Stone and he handed over a box of Fairy Liquid tablets from the bag. There was one remaining in the bag so the shop worker tried to take it from him.

A struggle broke out and Stone became aggressive and the shop worker backed off. Stone then sprayed detergent at the shop worker and all over a nearby fridge, destroying the food that was in it.

Stone then ran out of the shop and the shop worker grabbed him but the thief tried to break free, racially abusing the man as he did and insulting his religion.

Stone was held to the ground but threatened the shop worker that if he didn’t let him go he would come back and stab him with a syringe full of blood saying “I have AIDS and HIV”.”

Garda Altendorf told Ms Lacey that the food Stone sprayed with detergent was ruined at a cost of €652 to the shop. It cost €131 to clean the interview room.