Athy woman gets ten months for stealing sweets
The theft occurred at Dealz in Athy
A woman who had an heroin addiction and who previously engaged in systematic shoplifting in order to be sentenced and thus taken off the streets found this tactic effective again last week when she was handed a ten-month sentence for stealing sweets.
Jessie Connell (28) with an address at Castlepark, Athy appeared in Athy District Court from custody following her arrest the day before on foot of eight theft charges committed between June and August this year. Ms Connell pleaded guilty to theft of hair colouring from Moore’s Chemist on Duke Street, Athy, the theft of €85 worth of sweets from Dealz, also on Duke Street, €78 worth of groceries from Petitt’s SuperValu, and the theft of bed linen from Homesavers in Athy.
She was also charged with failure to appear in the Central Criminal Court on 18 August for an earlier offence that was set down for trial by indictment, and she had been held on remand on this bench warrant since an undisclosed date.
“Imagine going to prison for the theft of sweets from Dealz?” mused Judge Desmond Zaidan.
“She is in for a number of charges,” her long-standing solicitor Jackie McManus conceded.
“But there was no violence involved, and she has herself down to 80mg of methadone at the moment, and is looking far healthier than I’ve seen her in some time,” she added.
“It’s hard to see which one I can send her to jail for,” said the judge, with a shake of his head.
“On a negative note, there are over 200 prisoners in Dóchas [the women’s prison] at the moment, and Jessie is having to sleep on the floor,” said Ms McManus. “Drugs are rife throughout that prison, but to be fair to Jessie she has said no, no, no, no.”
Judge Zaidan then ruled: “Ten months in prison on the one sample charge.”
He added: “Every time I hear Jessie, Hayley, Tommy it’s your name coming up", having just recently dealt with Jessie’s two siblings, albeit for milder sanctions.
Jessie Connell was also sentenced to ten months in prison in January 2024 for spraying beer on two gardaí before kicking one of them, and she now has a total of 84 convictions.
She was scheduled for a release date in August, but was granted an early release, which allowed this particular spree to occur.
