Excrement in plastic bags caused €15,000 of damage to flat

A man who caused almost €15,000 worth of damage to his rented apartment by storing his excrement in plastic bags there for several months has been jailed for a year.

Robert Kummer (36), pleaded guilty to a charge of intentionally or recklessly causing criminal damage to the apartment at Quay House, Fitton Street East, just off the South Mall in Cork city centre, between June and September 2013.

Garda Lorraine O'Donovan told Cork Circuit Criminal Court how she went to the apartment in Cork city centre after the letting agent had been contacted by other tenants in the building who had complained about the smell.

For three months they had been unable to make contact with Kummer, a German national working for Apple in Cork, and were growing increasingly concerned over the smell.

Lied to garda

As Garda O’Donovan was discussing the smell with the letting agent, Kummer approached and when she asked him about the smell, he lied to her and said he had been in the US and had just returned.

Garda O’Donovan asked Kummer to open up his flat and when he opened the door, she was confronted by the sight of bags of excrement everywhere.

“On opening the front door the most bizarre and unbelievable conditions were observed. There was clothing everywhere and bags of excrement,” she said.

“I could see excrement all over the bedroom and there were bottles of yellow substance,” Garda O’Donovan told Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin.

On hearing about the bottles of yellow substance, Judge Ó Donnabháin interjected and said: “I think it might be better if I use my imagination.”

Fire fighters were contacted because of the extent of the fouling, and other gardaí were notified in case it was the scene of some other crime apart from criminal damage, but this was ruled out.

Stopped caring

Questioned about his behaviour, Kummer told Garda O'Donovan he had stopped caring after his mother became very ill with cancer in Germany.

Kummer only attended to personal hygiene by showering each day in his workplace before starting a day’s work, and taking his clothes to a laundry.

Otherwise he had been living in the conditions that she encountered when she visited the flat on September 24th, 2014, Garda O’Donovan said.

The smell and the damage were so severe that the owner of the apartment had to remove the flooring and everything had to be replaced.

The total cost of cleaning and repairing the apartment was about €15,000, but to date Kummer had only managed to come up with €800 in compensation, the court was told.

There was no apparent reason for Kummer to store his excrement in bags as the toilet in the one-bedroom flat in the newly built apartment complex was functioning properly, the court heard.

Kummer, who later moved to an apartment at Lancaster Gate, Western Road in Cork, had failed to appear in court on the charge on a previous occasion and had to be arrested last week.

‘Most unusual’

Judge Ó Donnabháin described it as “a most unusual and very bizarre case” and said the manner in which damage was caused to the property over a prolonged period was “extraordinary”.

“Graphic evidence was given and it was adjourned for the accused to gather compensation for the €15,000 damage, but only a figure of €800 was paid and nothing further has been forthcoming.

“I have a psychiatric report which is long but not very helpful, which is no reflection on the psychiatrist. The accused may have suffered a depressive episode,” he said.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said Kummer’s behaviour seemed to be as much of a mystery to the psychiatrist as it was to anyone else before he sentenced him to a year in jail for the offence.