Blood stain at Cork burglary scene traced to man with 163 convictions

A blood stain found at the scene of a burglary at the Izz Café on George’s Quay in Cork was traced to a man with 163 previous convictions and now he has confessed to this latest crime and been jailed for nine months.

Judge David Waters imposed that sentence, at Cork District Court, on 39-year-old Donal O’Sullivan who is originally from the Fairhill area of Cork and of no fixed address.

Defence solicitor Shane Collins-Daly said of the accused: “He spent a lot of his life in and out of custody and wanted to plead guilty to this offence as soon as he could. (Serving another sentence) he is spending his time in custody productively, he accepts he must get a custodial sentence for this burglary.” 

Sergeant Gearóid Davis outlined the background to the crime.

On February 7 Garda Katie Bland responded to a report of a burglary at Izz Cafe on Georges Quay. The owner told her that when he arrived at the cafe that morning he noticed the back door was open. He further noticed that the till area was disturbed and the €590 cash that had been in the till was missing.

CCTV was downloaded and it showed a man entering the property at approximately 4am via the back of the café. He spent up to 25 minutes in the property before leaving with the cash.

Garda scenes-of-crime members attended the scene and recovered a swab of blood from the card machine. The DNA profile was sent to Forensic Science Ireland. It was entered onto the DNA database system and a match was found to Donal O'Sullivan.

When questioned, he admitted the crime immediately.