Smashed €1,000 monitor in Portlaoise Hospital

A man stole a case of beer shortly after smashing a medical monitor screen at Portlaoise Hospital. 

Sean Nelson, 31, of Depaul House, Riverdell, Haymarket, Carlow admitted causing criminal damage at the emergency department at Portlaoise Hospital on December 4, 2023. He also admitted stealing a crate of Budweiser from Browns Off Licence on the Dublin Road in Portlaoise on the same date. 

Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby said the defendant had stolen a box of beer valued at €26 from Browns Off Licence at 9.50pm on December 4, 2023. Earlier in the day, he said the man had broken a medical monitor valued at €1,000. He said the man had 19 previous convictions. 

Solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said his client was pleading guilty and was currently in custody having received a sentence in the circuit court. He said the man’s earliest release date was June 7, 2025 and there was a post release suspended sentence in place. 

He said the man had struggled with alcohol and drug addictions since his early teens. He explained that both the man’s parents had died when he was young. 

On the date of the offence, the man had discharged himself from the hospital and gone to the nearby off licence. He said the crime wasn’t sophisticated and had occurred at the apex of his client’s addiction. 

Judge Nicola Andrews sentenced the man to two weeks in prison for criminal damage and she took the theft into consideration.