gave chase | 

Burglar who jumped into river to avoid gardaí after breaking into family home jailed

David Paget (43) had just thrown a shovel through the sitting room window of the occupied family home at 7am that morning

Today at 16:24

A burglar who jumped into a river to avoid gardaí after breaking into a family home has been jailed for six and half years for a string of burglaries.

David Paget (43) had just thrown a shovel through the sitting room window of the occupied family home at 7am that morning. The gardaí were alerted and gave chase.

Detective Garda Shane Woods told David Staunton BL, prosecuting, that he spotted Paget jump into the Tolka River and jumped in after him. He was ultimately caught hiding behind some shrubbery and taken out.

Paget, of Dromheath Grove, Ladyswell, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing a car and 11 burglaries on dates between September 2020 and October 23, 2022. Most of the burglaries occurred around Mulhuddart, Dublin 15. He has 57 previous convictions, including many burglaries.

Judge Orla Crowe noted that Paget was on bail for stealing the car, when he carried out 10 of the burglaries, and also on bail for the burglaries when he burgled the final home in October 2023.

She accepted that he co-operated with the garda investigations, made admissions and demonstrated remorse. She also acknowledged that he has been making efforts to deal with his addiction and wants to make amends and change his lifestyle. “There are green shoots,” she said.

However, she said most of the burglaries were of domestic dwellings, both occupied and unoccupied and she said the final burglary was an escalation in seriousness.

“He threw a shovel through the front window of a house where young children were present,” Judge Crowe said before she added that as it was early on a Sunday morning anyone could have been in that front room.

She also said the fact that a garda had to jump into a river on an October morning in order to catch him was a further aggravating feature.

Judge Crowe imposed consecutive sentences, taking into account the fact that Paget was on bail for the offences, totalling seven and half years before she suspended the final year on strict conditions including that Paget engage with the Probation Service for 12 months upon his ultimate release from custody.

Det Gda Woods agreed with Simon Matthews BL, defending, that he knows Paget from the local area and that he is a man who struggles with addiction. He further agreed that he was under the influence of drugs the morning of the burglary and that Paget said in interview he couldn’t remember anything because he “was stoned out of my head”.

Det Gda Woods accepted that the laptop that had been stolen during the burglary that morning was recovered but it had been destroyed.

Mr Matthews told Judge Crowe that his client was a father to four children who is making attempts to deal with his addiction. He submitted that the gardaí previously gave evidence that Paget is fine to deal with on arrest and is co-operative.