Man 'out of his mind' on cocaine jailed for Cork burglary
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard the burglar was followed by an armed property owner.
A property in Buttevant was burgled by a 28-year-old man 'out of his mind' on cocaine with a knife up his sleeve, and the owners followed him — one carrying a hammer and hurley, another driving behind with a shotgun.
That was the scenario described by Detective Garda Clodagh Walsh at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where the burglar was jailed for two years.
Garda Walsh outlined the background to the case against Roman Becvar for Judge James McCourt at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Becvar came to Ireland from the Czech Republic five weeks earlier and was residing at Gracelands, Kilcolman West, Buttevant, Co Cork.
On the day of the burglary on March 27, he went to another property at Kilcolman West. He got into an outhouse beside the main property and when the owners returned that evening they noticed that the door was open.
The owner went into the storeroom and found a stranger walking against him, brushing past him, and knocking him to the ground.
There was a Land Rover in the yard and powder was visible on the seat. Two lines of powder were also seen inside the storeroom, indicative of cocaine use by the intruder. The handle of a knife was visible in his hand and the blade was up his sleeve.
The adult son of the family was present and his father gave him a hurley and hammer and told him to follow the intruder who was running from the scene across a field and to keep a safe distance from him.
“The owner got a shotgun and cartridges and followed on the road in the car,” Garda Walsh said.
The man in pursuit managed to trip the stranger but the defendant ran again and was later found by gardaí in a ditch. There was powder on his face.
Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said that when CCTV of the incident was shown from the private property to Mr Becvar he could not believe he had done what was shown.
Mr Creed produced a psychiatric report on the accused which referred to a diagnosis of schizophrenia and the fact that he was being prescribed anti-psychotic medication.
Judge James McCourt said it was alleged that the accused had come to adverse attention while in custody — it is alleged that he was involved in a serious assault on another prisoner who had his ear bitten off.
Jailing Mr Becvar for two years for the Buttevant burglary, the judge said: “It was lucky no one was harmed. He had a serious weapon. On the medical evidence he is lucky to be alive due to the amount of his drug taking.
“He took off across the field, He was out of his mind.”
The judge imposed a sentence of three years with the last year suspended. Judge McCourt required the accused to leave Ireland on his release and not to return to Ireland for a minimum of seven years.
