Gerry Connors jailed for four years for burglaries

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Gerry Connors (28) was jailed for four years for two burglaries at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 26 February 2015. He pleaded guilty to both charges. The Shankill burglary occurred on 1 April 2009 and the Killiney burglary on 16 June 2009.

Connors stole a safe containing jewellery worth €190,000 and €10,000 in various currencies from the Killiney house. He told gardaí he thought the jewellery was “scrap” and exchanged it for €500 worth of heroin. In Shankill, he stole car keys and items worth €2,000.

Detective Garda Kieran Murphy told James Dwyer BL, prosecuting, that the Killiney owners were on holiday. He said the property sustained €50,000 in damage, bringing the family’s total loss to €250,000, but their insurer paid out. Judge Martin Nolan said Connors had caused gratuitous damage.

Connors had 115 previous convictions, including 90 for road and traffic offences and 12 for burglary. He received a three-year burglary sentence in June 2010. He failed to attend his trial, and gardaí later discovered he had fled to England and was serving a prison term there. Following a European arrest warrant, he was returned to Ireland in October 2014.

Detective Garda Kieran Murphy said CCTV identified the Killiney getaway van, which Connors could access. His August 2009 arrest yielded nothing of evidential value concerning Killiney, although he admitted the Shankill burglary when shown CCTV. Blood stains subsequently linked him to the Killiney scene; he made admissions after his December 2009 re-arrest.

Under questioning by Colman Fitzgerald SC, defending, Detective Garda Kieran Murphy agreed that others assisted in Killiney but nobody else had been charged. He accepted that Connors was “not the brains behind the operation”, was a follower and committed the burglaries to feed his drug habit. Colman Fitzgerald submitted reports outlining rehabilitation efforts in custody and asked the judge to consider that both houses were unoccupied.