Mother-of-two jailed after vicious attack on pensioners

A mother-of-two who broke into the home of an elderly couple and attacked them with a cup and a bedside radio has been jailed for 18 months.

Terrified pensioners Michael and Winifred Herrity told how their lives will never be the same again after Krystyna Gasperowicz, 36, broke into their home at Coolboy, Letterkenny.

Gasperowicz, a mother-of-two teenage daughters, was high on amphetamines and was talking to animals and plants just before she broke into the couple's home at 7.30am on June 14, 2020.

Distraught pensioner Mrs Herrity told how ‘priceless’ wedding rings were stolen and never recovered in a horror attack that has left her and her husband ‘living in fear’.

At the time of the attack, Mrs Herrity was 73 and her husband 70.

Passing sentence at Letterkenny Circuit Court Judge John Aylmer said the consequences of the ‘fairly viciously assault’ could have been worse.

He said: "Michael and Winifred Herrity were fairly viciously assaulted and awoken from sleep in the middle of night.

"He was struck with a cup and she a radio. While thankfully their injuries not terribly serious they required an ambulance to be called and there were lacerations to be tended to but as appears from the victim impact statements as one would expected they had an extremely traumatic affect on them.”

He said he placed the count of burglary involving the violation of an elderly couple in the mid-range of offences and one which merited a sentence of seven years in prison before mitigation was considered.

Other charges of burglary of a vacant dwelling house and criminal damage of the couple's mobile phones were also included in concurrent prison sentences.

In mitigation, Judge Aylmer said he had to take into account a number of factors including that Gasperowicz was a woman in her 30s who had no previous convictions and was suffering from the effects of having taken amphetamines for a number of days.

Gasperowicz suffered from depression and mental health issues as well as post traumatic stress disorder following the death of her 13-year-old sister by suicide.

He said it appeared the incident was "bizarre" and out of character for Gasperowicz and that she had shown a level of empathy for the couple having tended to them with a towel and also called an ambulance.

Judge Aylmer reduced that sentence to one of four and a half years. However, because Gasperowicz had no previous convictions and because she suffered form mental health issues he reduced the sentence to one of 18 months in prison saying there had to be a custodial sentence.

On the morning of the incident, Mr Herrity told Gardaí that he heard a noise in his room, but ‘passed no heed’. He said he was alert, but not fully awake when someone started wrestling with him.

Gasperowicz grabbed Mr Herrity by the nose, squeeing it closed, and covered his mouth with her other hand. Gasperowicz hit Mr Herrity across the head with a cup or a glass and he called out for his wife.

When Mrs Herrity came into the room, believing her husband to be having an asthma attack, Gasperowicz hit her over the head with a radio.

Mrs Herrity fell to the ground. “I thought she was dead,” Mr Herrity told Gardaí in a statement.

Mr Herrity handed Gasperowicz his wallet, which contained €900 in cash which he intended to use to have work done around the house.

Gasperowicz took Mrs Herrity’s wedding ring, engagement ring and an eternity ring, as well as her bank card. Mobile phones belonging to the couple were also taken.

“They were priceless,” Mrs Herrity told investigating Gardai. Mrs Herrity said she believed Gasperowicz was going to kill her during the terrifying ordeal.

When Mrs Herrity, with the aid of crutches, got himself to the living room, Gasperowicz gave him a cloth to attend to a bleeding wound on his head.

The couple were taken to Letterkenny University Hospital for treatment. Mr Herrity had a 3-4cm laceration on his forehead, which was bleeding heavily and he was choked and suffocated.

Mrs Herrity had a small laceration to the left side of her head and had generalised pain all over, particularly to the ring finger of her left hand.

During door-to-door enquiries, Gardai were informed that a second property, owned by Mr Denis Sweeney, was broken into.

Crime scene investigators found a black face mask in the Herrity home while a neighbour told how a woman matching Gasperowicz’s description had came to the house at 9.15am and asked them to ring a taxi.

Gardaí established that Gasperowicz was taken to the Glencar Shopping Centre. CCTV footage was viewed and Gasperowicz identified.

When Gardaí called to Gasperowicz’s home, they located clothing, the same as the woman in the footage, along with €480 cash in a washing machine.

After her arrest, Gasperowicz made admissions in a third interview with Gardaí.

Detective Garda Carter said that Gasperowicz was taken to an area near to the Herritys’ home where she had discarded items. The mobile phones were recovered and damaged, but the rings and other items were not recovered.

Mr Michael Herrity told in a victim impact statement how he is living in fear

“You should always feel safe in your own home,” he said. “My home is not what it used to be. The doors are kept locked all the time. If anyone comes to the door now, I open the window first to talk to them.

“The cuts and bruises have healed, but the memory of that morning will never heal. The feelings of fear and panic are never far away.”

In a victim impact statement, Ms Winifred Herrity said she had been left traumatised by the incident and her life will ‘never be the same again’.

“I have lived in my home for 48 years and never once felt afraid, but all that has changed,” Ms Herrity said.

“Gone is the carefree and peaceful life and I now live in fear. Every stranger who calls or noise that I hear fills me with fear.

“I live in constant fear. I replay it over and over and I will never get over it. I spent my days living in fear.”

Barrister for Gasperowicz, Mr Shane Costello, SC, said his client, a 36-year-old mother-of-two felt ‘great shame’ over the incident.

In the days prior to the attack, Mr Costello said Gasperowicz was ‘spiralling ever further out of control’ and was taking amphetamines ‘hourly’.

“She appears to have entered into a psychotic state,” Mr Costello said. “She begun to have auditory and visual hallucinations. She thought that animals were speaking to her and thought that she was being directed to do certain things.”