Cork man jailed for criminal damage 'given chance after chance', says judge

A Cork man who pleaded guilty to one count of entering a building with intent to commit an offence and one count of criminal damage had been given “chance after chance” to sort his life out, according to a district court judge.

Court presenter Sergeant Tom Mulcahy told Bantry District Court that a disturbance was reported at Dromleigh South, Bantry, Co Cork, in the early hours of the morning. A resident woke at 2am to suspicious sounds at a neighbouring vacant property.

Resident

The resident looked out of the window to see a man later identified as Tadgh Tuschewski, aged 25, of no fixed abode and formerly of Rossmore, Clonakilty, trying to enter the building. When the man challenged Tuschewski, he was verbally abusive towards him.

Tuschewski had taken a sliding door at the property off its rails and had broken three windows.

Tuschewski then headed towards Bantry where, a short time later, he attempted to enter another vacant house where another window was broken. 

The court was told that Tuschewski had 67 previous convictions for a variety of offences, including assault causing harm and sexual assault.

Defence solicitor, Flor Murphy, said that his client had been residing with his mother in Rossmore at the time and had gone to Bantry earlier that day to attend psychiatric services at Bantry Hospital.

Incidents

Mr Murphy said, however, that an issue arose and Tuschewski was not admitted to the hospital. He said the houses in question were near the hospital and the incidents happened later that night.

Tuschewski said that he has been clean from drugs for some time, but he was asked to leave his mother’s home, and this set him back and led to him taking drugs and committing offences.

Judge Joanne Carroll said that Tuschewski was previously “given a break”, but had gone back to drug-taking.

She said that Tuschewski knows that to stay out of trouble, he needed to take his medication and stay off drugs, but he had not done so.

She added: “The time for blaming your mother is well and truly gone.”

For the offence of entering a building with intent to commit an offence, he was sentenced to four months in prison.

For criminal damage, he was also sentenced to four months, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Recognisance for appeal was fixed at €100 cash on each charge.

• This article is funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme