A COURT was told yesterday that a 21-year-old woman has had to live with locks and bolts on her bedroom door since the night she awoke to find two masked burglars at the foot of her bed.
Kerrie Grainger was awarded €25,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court against one of the burglars, Simon O’Connor, for emotional stress, assault and trespass.
Barrister Conor Gallagher said Ms Grainger’s sister, Caroline Grainger (30), had been awarded €25,000 last July against O’Connor, who was said to have an interest in a property.
He told Circuit Court president Mr Justice Matthew Deery that the Grainger household, home of well-known publican Mark Grainger, of St Helen’s, Station Road, Portmarnock, Co Dublin, had been broken into on March 7th, 2004. The raiders had asked the sisters where the safe was kept.
Mr Gallagher said O’Connor, Clanawley Road, Donnycarney, Dublin, and another man had pleaded guilty to assault in the course of a robbery, and had been sentenced to six years.
Kerrie Grainger, then aged 14, said she at first pulled the bedclothes over her head while the men ransacked her bedroom in a search for money and jewellery.
She said they told her they would hurt her if she screamed or left her room after they did. They also searched Caroline’s room. The court heard the burglars spent about half an hour rifling the rooms and took about €500 and jewellery.
Judge Deery said Kerrie had experienced a particularly frightening experience and had been threatened with physical violence.