By Sonya McLean
A man who broke into a house because he was trying to find a shortcut home after he waded through a stream on a golf course has been given a suspended sentence.
The home-owner found Carl Innos (30) in his conservatory after he heard a noise while he was in the kitchen of his home. Innos was wet and the victim later described him as “not being aggressive”.
Innos asked the man to open the internal doors to allow him to leave the house but the victim instead fled his home and called 999. Nothing was taken during the burglary and Innos was caught nearby later that day.
The court heard that the home-owner’s neighbour had recorded Innos breaking into the house on his phone. This was then provided to the gardaí and led to him being caught and arrested nearby.
When interviewed by gardaí, Innos told them that he had been drinking that day on the beach. He had intended to walk home and had cut through the golf course which led to him crossing a stream.
He was soaking wet and realised he was in a cul-de-sac he didn’t want to have wade through the stream again so he said he climbed through an open window in the house in the hope that he could “essentially take a shortcut through the house”.
Innos, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary at the house in Malahide on August 19, 2024.
Justin McQuade BL, prosecuting, said Innos had one previous conviction for failing to appear in court.
He read a victim impact statement from the victim into the record. He said he has yet to regain his previous feeling of safety in his home. He has been left with a “lingering sense of deep unease” and said the burglary was “a new and very unpleasant experience for me”.
Vanessa Frawley BL, defending, said her client, who is originally from Finland, offered an “unreserved apology” to the home-owner.
She submitted that the offence was “out of character” for her client and asked the court to take into account his lack of previous convictions.
Judge Orla Crowe said the man’s family home was violated and his sense of safety was impacted.
“It is very hard to undo that damage when your place of safety has been violated in that way,” Judge Crowe said.
She acknowledged that Innos is apologetic before she imposed a three-month sentence which she suspended in full for a year.