A burglar used a child’s schoolbag to carry a laptop away from a house he had just ransacked while the child and its mother slept upstairs.
John Mongan (31), of 24 Gaelcarrig Park, Newcastle, had already clocked up 99 previous convictions, including 18 for burglary, by the time he broke into the woman’s home in Hazel Park on May 3 last year.
The woman and her little boy were asleep in their bedrooms upstairs when Mongan smashed a window at the rear of the house shortly after 11pm.
He pleaded guilty to the burglary and his sentence hearing took place at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.
The court heard that luckily, the woman’s brother happened to be staying in the house that night.
He was awoken by the sound of what he thought was someone letting a glass fall downstairs. He went down to investigate and came face to face with Mongan in the kitchen.
The kitchen cupboards had all been turned out while a €1,200 laptop was stolen from another tenant’s bedroom upstairs. She was not in the house that night.
The child’s schoolbag, containing the laptop, was later found behind a wall near the house.
Two students later told Gardai they were looking out their bedroom window on the night in question and saw a man running down an alleyway, while carrying a laptop which he dropped on the ground.
Mongan fitted the description of the burglar given by the woman’s brother and he was subsequently arrested. He denied any involvement in the burglary and told Gardai to “f**k off”.
The court heard Mongan had 99 previous convictions, 41 of which were for thefts and 18 for burglaries. The remainder were for robberies, handling stolen property, taking cars, criminal damage, taking bicycles, drinking driving, Public Order offences and driving without insurance.
Detective Maria Conneely read victim impact statements, which she had taken from the mother and from the female tenant.
The mother said she and her young son had been deeply traumatised and they no longer felt safe in their home.
She said her son could no longer play alone in his bedroom and she was afraid to be alone in the house herself.
“Our lives have been deeply altered by the burglary. It’s not just about our possessions being taken and I’m terrified to be alone in my own home. I’m afraid of every little noise. It has completely taken over my life and up to this day, I cannot justify any of this to my young son. He faces a long road to recovery, psychologically,” the woman said in her statement.
The other woman, whose laptop was taken, said she had been a tenant in the house but had since moved out and now lived in a different area in order to feel safer.
She said the loss of her laptop had both economic and emotional repercussions.
In reply to prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy, Det Conneely said Mongan’s last conviction for burglary was recorded in January 2013 when he received nine months in prison for a burglary which was committed in October 2012.
He subsequently received a five-month prison sentence for another burglary committed in November 2013, while he received a total of eleven months in prison in May 2015 for a string of thefts.
Defence barrister, Geri Silke said Mongan had a heroin addiction and his family were concerned he receive treatment. She said he had thought the house was empty and he fled out the back door once he saw the woman’s brother in the kitchen.
On the application of Mr Fahy, Judge McCabe agreed to adjourn sentence to March to give the prosecution time to study the law with regard to the possible consecutive sentencing of repeat burglars like Mongan, who commit similar offences within a certain time frame.
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