Burglar fell asleep in care home corridor

A BURGLAR who was found asleep in the corridor of a care home with a “do not disturb” sign nearby has been given a one-year suspended sentence.
Stuart Perry (42) and a female accomplice fled the scene with a bottle of detergent when discovered by staff, but were arrested outside and described as “off their heads on drugs”.
The court heard Perry had tried crystal meth earlier that night for “the first and last time”.
Perry, of Thomas Street, Dublin but originally from Dun Laoghaire, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary at Richmond Cheshire Home, Monkstown on September 19, 2014. He has 67 previous convictions.
Judge Patricia Ryan had adjourned the case after hearing evidence last year to give Perry an opportunity to address his problems. She noted there were positive probation reports before the court and that Perry had made efforts to rehabilitate himself.
She imposed a one-year sentence, which she suspended in full and ordered one year probation supervision.
Garda David Maloney told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that a staff member at the residential care home for severely disabled people had arrived at work at 7.30am and noticed a “do not disturb” sign from an office door had been knocked to the ground.
She then saw a male body on the ground nearby with a female standing over it.
A second staff member heard her screaming and saw the pair in the corridor. Perry woke up and left the area with his female accomplice.
Gardai were notified and found the two outside with a bottle of detergent nearby and the keys to the office hanging out of Perry’s pocket. They were arrested but were unfit for questioning for a time.
Perry later made full admissions. He told gardai he had taken crystal meth and his memory was not very good.
Perry said he was sorry and it had been “very silly”. He said he had just wanted to lie down and sleep somewhere.
The only things taken from the home were the office keys and the bottle of detergent the female co-accused had believed was alcohol.
Gda Maloney told Judge Ryan that Perry was under the impression his co-accused used to work in the care home, and they had got a taxi to the scene before climbing in an open window.
Patrick Reynolds BL, defending, said that Perry’s father had died from a drug overdose when he was nine years old and Perry himself began abusing heroin and cocaine at 18 years old.
At the time of the original sentence hearing last May, Perry was on a course of methadone and working with an addiction rehabilitation service.