By Joe McCabe
joe@monaghanpost.com

“HOW DARE you two scumbags invade the private space of a 60-year-old man. The public must be protected from the likes of you,” declared Monaghan’s tough on crime Judge Sean McBride at Monaghan District Court this week.

The no nonsense judge jailed two men with Dublin addresses for trespassing after the court heard how Mr Tony Mallen was in the sitting room of his Latlorcan home, in Monaghan on June 27 when he saw a man in a hooped shirt approach the back window.

The defendant then ran away along with an other man onto the roadway as Mr Mallen alerted gardai. A hooped shirt was subsequently found discarded by gardai which bore the name of Thomas Hanrahan, a single 24-year-old of St Mealruan’s Halting site, Tallaght whom, Judge McBride heard, was on temporary release from jail and has 38 previous convictions.

Inspector Pat McMurrow said that Hanrahan and a second defendant, Ned McDonagh, 18, single, of 8 Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin ran into a wedding in the Hillgrove Hotel nearby and mingled with the wedding party despite not being invited to the function.

The court heard that when the pair were arrested by gardai McDonagh, who had no previous convictions but is known to gardai, refused to be fingerprinted and gave a false name.

Hanrahan was sentenced to five months imprisonment while McDonagh was given four months detention in St Patrick’s Institution in County Cavan along with another four months concurrent detention for giving a false name.

Judge McBride who declared: “I have been the victim of a burglary myself. There is only one answer for thugs that do this type of thing and that is to put them behind bars.” Recognisances were set for an appeal.