Grace Tormey convicted of aggravated burglary

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

Grace Tormey was convicted of aggravated burglary at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. She had pleaded not guilty. The charge concerned an offence at Rollins Villas, Sallynoggin, on 16 November 2012. The proceedings were reported on 1 February 2016.

Lisa Lee, who had previously suffered a stroke and was partially paralysed, said Tormey smashed a wine bottle over the back of her head. She also said Tormey kicked and punched her and pulled lumps out of her hair.

When gardaí arrived, they found Tormey “apparently attending” to Ms Lee’s facial wounds. Tormey told gardaí she had been walking past the house, saw the damaged front door and came inside to help Ms Lee. Ms Lee initially told gardaí that no burglary had taken place and they were not needed. She subsequently made a statement, and gardaí later arrested Tormey.

After a four-day trial and one and a half hours of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict. Judge Patricia Ryan refused a defence application to allow Tormey to remain on bail and remanded her in custody until a sentence hearing the following week.