Homeless woman jailed for burglary at Joan Burton’s home

A homeless grandmother has been jailed for nine months for carrying out a burglary at the home of Labour TD and former tánaiste Joan Burton.

The incident happened while Ms Burton was out giving a talk at a community crime prevention meeting on the evening of July 2nd last.

Emma O’Callaghan (44), of no fixed address, was arrested and brought before Judge Brian O’Shea at Dublin District Court the following day. She has been in custody since.

She gave the name Elaine Waters when she was charged with trespassing at the house on Old Cabra Road, Dublin with intent to commit theft. She said she was “out of it” when she broke into the politician’s home by removing a window pane. Neighbours observed her jumping the back wall and alerted gardaí.

O’Callaghan, who had 63 previous convictions going back to 2007, pleaded guilty and apologised, saying she had not known who owned the house.

Garda James Feeney said he saw O’Callaghan inside the house and she came out voluntarily. Following arrest, she was brought to the Bridewell Garda station where she was searched and foreign currency worth about €26 was found on her which had been taken from the house, he said.

Defence solicitor John Devlin said O’Callaghan was a mother of four who had lived a “chaotic lifestyle” after starting to abuse alcohol aged 14 and heroin at 17. She had physical and mental health problems which made it difficult for her to change her lifestyle, the solicitor said. He also asked the court to note that there had been limited loss to the injured parties.

Mr Devlin said his client wanted to apologise for the intrusion and distress caused.

Judge O’Shea said burglary was a particularly spiteful offence which violated the safety of the home and that was evident from a victim impact statement from Pat Carroll, Ms Burton’s husband.