Louth man cleared of breaking into house next door to his granny
A 29-year-old man has been found “not guilty” by a jury of charges stemming from a break-in at a house next door to his grandmother’s in Dundalk.
After deliberating for more than four hours over two days majority verdicts were returned clearing Darren Kearney of any wrongdoing.
The defendant, of Clann Chulainn Park, Farndreg, Dundalk, denied commiting an aggravated burglary with a hammer at 480 Ashling Park on November 20, 2020, and taking a car parked in the driveway.
It was alleged during the circuit court trial that the intruder’s face was partially covered by a mask which kept slipping down during an early morning incident and the defence contended that it was a case of mistaken identity.
The injured party testified that she was almost four years living in the house at the time. She no longer resided there.
On the date in question she had been talking on the phone with her boyfriend throughout the night. It was his Audi A4 parked outside.
Before 7am after putting her phone on charge she went downstairs because the dog was barking out the back.
As she turned on the light for the open plan sitting/dining room, "I saw a man standing in front of me holding a hammer in his left hand above his head. He was half a metre away."
The woman continued that this person was wearing a grey reflective jacket with the hood up and a mask with a skull picture on it. This mask was above his nostrils. It slipped repeatedly.
"I knew it was Darren Kearney. I know him most of his life. His granny lives next door at no. 481."
She said at first she throught it was a joke but when recognising the man knew that it wasn't.
"Almost instantly I knew it was him."
He asked her to get the keys of the car while he had a hold of her dressing gown.
"Give me the keys of the car. I'm taking the car," she alleged he said to her.
The witness added she reasoned "do as your told". She told him the keys were in the bedroom and walked backways up the stairs.
"I couldn't take my eyes off him in case he hit me with the hammer."
He followed her. He no longer had a hold of the drsssing gown. The hammer was still in his hand. She narrated everything she was going to do.
"I asked him was he going to hurt me and he said 'no'."
The keys were on a locker. He stood at the door looking in. Her four-year-old son was in the bed.
He said: "Give me the keys, money. I'm taking the lot."
The woman continued that there was €70 in view which she gave to him along with the keys.
She realised there were Christmas presents in the car boot. He helped her take them out.
He grabbed her boyfriend's jacket to hand over before throwing it back into the car because he said his prints would be on it.
The woman said, "I know who you are, Darren. Prints don't matter."
She added he warned her not to tell anyone about this.
"I told him 'don't ever come near my house like that again'."
She had to show him how to use the electronic handbrake on the car before he drove off, in which direction she didn’t know.
"If I helped him he was gone faster. There was never a doubt (it was Darren Kearney). The mask slipped down his chin and he kept hitching it back up."
The woman told defence counsel Barra McGrory SC that she initially told gardaí that the accused lived next door in his granny’s house. That's what she believed. She accepted that he didn't live there. She made a second statement to that effect.
She said that she gave no description of the intruder's height, build or gait. The guards didn't ask.
She had been talking to her boyfriend for three-and-a-half to 4 hours before this happened.
He arranged a lift for her and her son to his house afterwards.
She spoke to Mr Kearney's two sisters about what occurred and told a number of her friends that "the guy next door robbed me".
"Somebody said to me that he didn't live next door. I got that wrong (that he lived next door) and I rectified it."
Det Gda Andrew McGuill testified that he took a statement from the woman at her boyfriend's house in Glenmore Park, arriving there at 7.30am that day.
He then went to Darren Kearney's mother's address in Clann Chulainn Park. She said that he was asleep upstairs. The defendant was arrested at 11.30am.
Det Gda McGuill said that he seized a jacket hanging on the door which matched the description of a jacket given to him by the victim.
He told McGrory that the woman was adamant from the outset it was Darren Kearney. She was very clear how she knew him.
"She was positive and I believed her."
The witness continued there was not enough DNA found in the car to make a profile.
CCTV footage was played to the jury from two cameras at Mr Kearney's grandmother's house.
Prosecuting counsel Miska Hanahoe said to the jury that the woman "never waivered".
"She was sure the whole time it was Darren Kearney. She grew up around the Kearneys."
Mr McGrory said this lady clearly went through a frightening experience but she got the identification wrong "and made a terrible mistake".
She was well meaning but was frightened, scared and tired at the time.
Affer deliberating for 4 hours and 7 minutes the jury came back with majority “not guilty” verdicts.
Turning to Mr Kearney, Judge Dara Hayes said to him: “You’ve heard the jury’s verdict, you are free to go.”
The judge extended his sympathy to the woman for her “awful ordeal at the hands of somebody else on the night in question”.