A burglar who defecated on a kitchen floor before making off with property has been jailed for four years by Judge Elizabeth Dunne at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Gardai caught Gary Quinn escaping from an apartment window with jewellery and a Nikon camera worth a total of £5,520. All the property was recovered. Judge Dunne said the "gratuitous element" was unnecessarily designed to cause additional distress to the victim.
Quinn (25), Weavers Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to burglary of the premises at Grey Square, Dublin, last March. Garda Kevin O'Hagan told Mr Brendan Mulhall, prosecuting, that Quinn had been injecting drugs since he was 16. He has 16 previous convictions dating to 1990 for burglary and trespassing. He is serving a sentence for a similar offence.
Mr Bernard Condon, defending, apologised on behalf of Quinn not only for the invasion of the victim's privacy but and for what he called "the gratuitous element" of his actions.