Cork judge 'shocked' she didn't send woman to jail at previous sentencing hearing

A judge who adjourned sentencing of a woman in a Minnie Mouse tracksuit for her part in a €5,000 cash burglary from an apartment in Cork was shocked at herself for not sentencing the woman last November when she read over her notes on the case.

Now that the case against Janice McCarthy, who is aged around 40 and of no fixed address, has come back before Judge Sinéad Behan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court she has imposed a sentence of 18 months on Ms McCarthy with the last nine months suspended.

Defence barrister, Mahon Corkery, said that at the time of this burglary: “Ms McCarthy had fallen into the slipstream of another person.” That man was sentenced in November 2025 to two and a half years with the last year suspended.

Judge Behan noted that Janice McCarthy played a lesser role in the burglary but also commented: “Reading over my notes, I am shocked at myself not to have given her a custodial sentence (in November) to be honest.” 

Detective Garda Patrick Houlihan said the burglary was carried out on August 24, 2024, at Millerd Street Cork.

“(Janice McCarthy’s accomplice) entered the apartment complex carrying a pint glass with stout in it. This was captured on CCTV.

“He entered an apartment and stole €5,000 from a bedside locker. He is then seen exiting the complex. The pint glass was found on the kitchen table of the apartment and it did not belong to the tenant,” Det Garda Houlihan said.