This article is from page 15 of the 2005-11-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
A DUBLIN man has been cleared of lar- ceny and burglary charges in east Clare, at Ennis Circuit Court.
Stephen Russell, of 25 Knockmore Grove, Tallaght, Dublin 24, had pleaded not guilty to three counts of larceny and one count of burglary, at various locations in Scariff and Mountshannon.
It was alleged he stole a car, valued at £8,000, at Ballyminogue, Scarrif; a Mo- torola mobile phone, valued at £129, at Mid- dleline, Mountshannon, and a Fujitsu laptop computer, valued at £1,600, at Mountshan- non, on August 25, 2000.
He had also been charged with entering Long’s shop, Main Street, Scariff, as a tres-
passer and stealing £4,150 in cash; ciga- rettes, cigars and tobacco worth £8,300 and telephone call cards valued at £1,000, on August 29, 2000.
Witness Eamon Long told the jury he was the proprietor of Long’s supermarket/news- agents at the time of the alleged incident. The shop was on the ground floor, with the living quarters overhead.
At around 7.30am, he said his son called him and he went downstairs. The storeroom door had been burst open and all the ciga- rettes in the shop and store were gone, along with cash and telephone cards.
After hearing lengthy legal argument over a number of days, Judge Con Murphy di- rected the jury that the accused be found not guilty.