Serial shoplifter sentenced for stealing Easter eggs and groceries in Wicklow

By Darragh McCann, The Wicklow People

A woman has been jailed after stealing groceries, charity shop items, and Easter eggs in Bray, Co Wicklow.

Rosanna Kenna (37) of no fixed address appeared via video link from the Dochas Centre at a sitting of Bray District Court for sentencing.

Ms Kenna entered guilty pleas to four counts of theft.

Sergeant Mick Dee told the court that on February 19, 2026, the accused entered Centra on the Boghall Road in Bray and stole €70 worth of groceries.

Later the same day, she entered SuperValu in Bray and took items valued at €81.30 before leaving the store without paying. None of the property was recovered. She was also observed stealing track pants from Vision Ireland, a charity shop in Bray.

Sgt Dee informed the court that on February 21 she stole further items, namely Easter eggs valued at €58.

The court heard that Ms Kenna has 133 previous convictions, including criminal damage, threatening and abusive behaviour, and assaulting a garda. She also has 64 previous convictions related to theft offences.

Ms Kenna was fined €500 at Blanchardstown District Court by Judge Áine Clancy after punching a garda and telling him: “If you weren’t a garda, I’d kill you.”

Her most recent conviction came at Court 4 in the Central Criminal Court, where she entered the Botanic House restaurant on March 7, 2025, went behind the bar, opened the till, and took €90.

Solicitor for the accused, Joe Maguire, told the court that Ms Kenna’s mother sadly passed away in 2023, and her grandmother, whom she occasionally looks after, is in a nursing home. He added that she had a “difficult upbringing” as both she and her mother suffered from addiction issues.

The court heard that the defendant is “presenting and looking well” since her recent release from prison.

Judge David Kennedy sentenced Ms Kenna to six months’ imprisonment for one of the theft matters and imposed a fully suspended 10-month sentence for another, taking the remaining two matters into consideration.