""I was still writing up my notes - I work long days", he said. "I couldn't see through the curtains and thought it was foxes. Then I heard metal scraping against the window". He said he went into the hallway and could hear movement right beside the house. "My hurley was beside me", he said. "18 months earlier I had been attacked by people - so I was frightened. I left my thumb on my phone ready to call emergency services"."
"Mr Lingurar, who works in construction, gave evidence through a Romanian interpreter. He said he could not remember the incident because he had been drinking but insisted he was on the footpath across the street, not at the house itself. Judge Cooney said he preferred the evidence of the homeowner, describing his account as credible and moving."
Madalin Lingurar (26), of North Circular Road, Dublin 7, originally from Romania, pleaded not guilty to trespassing at Sydenham Villas, Dundrum, on 1 October 2024 and was convicted after a hearing before Judge Derek Cooney at Dún Laoghaire District Court. A separate charge of criminal damage to the front door was dismissed. Gardaí were called shortly after midnight when the homeowner reported two men inside his property; officers stopped and arrested Lingurar nearby and a second man. The homeowner described hearing metal scraping, seeing two men at his window, and feeling terrified because of a prior attack. Lingurar said he had been drinking and maintained he was on the footpath. The judge preferred the homeowner's account.
Read at Irish Independent
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