‘Off the rails’ woman who kicked Laois charity shop manager

A prison sentence was handed down to a woman who stole clothes and alcohol in Portlaoise. 

Sarah Cloherty(38) of 1 The Maisonettes, Stradbally, admitted assault, being intoxicated and stealing jeans valued at €3.50 from Oxfam, Lyster Square, Portlaoise on July 23. She also admitted being intoxicated at Supermac’s JFL Avenue on the same date. 

The defendant further admitted stealing two bottles of wine from Aldi, Portlaoise, on July 26 and to being intoxicated and engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour on the same date at Mulhalls, Lyster Square and to stealing a bottle of wine from Egans Off Licence in Portlaoise and being intoxicated at Laois Shopping Centre on the same date.

The woman also admitted being intoxicated and engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour in Lyster Square on July 25 and to stealing a bottle of wine from Mulhalls, stole clothing valued at €31 from Penneys in Portlaoise and being intoxicated in Penneys. On October 12 she stole a bottle of wine from Dunnes Stores on the Mountmellick Road in Portlaoise and a bottle of wine from Mulhalls, Lyster Square on the same date. 

Solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said his client’s offending was concentrated around July 23 to 27. He said the woman was from Galway and suffered trauma in her childhood, which resulted in PTSD and a reliance on alcohol. He said there were reports before the court. He said she was “clearly a lady who needs treatment and extensive one-to-one counselling.” 

Mr Fitzgerald said the woman was “clearly in freefall” at the time of the offending and there were “two or three days where she was off the rails”. 

Judge Susan Fay noted there was also offending in October and Mr Fitzgerald said the woman must have been on temporary release from prison. 

Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby said the accused had gone into the Oxfam shop at 11am on July 23, took jeans and became defensive when the manager approached before she “kicked the manager in the shin”. He said the property was recovered. 

On July 25, the woman went into Penneys in Portlaoise and put clothing valued at €31 on  “leaving her own clothes on the floor” at 12.30pm. She was later found “lying on the ground outside Lyster Square with a half-drunk bottle of wine” and she became abusive when gardaí approached, said Sgt Kirby. 

Mr Fitzgerald said his client had been on temporary release when the offending occurred in October. 

“Alcohol seems to be the key factor in it all,” he said. 

He said the woman was doing well in custody and the “acid test” will be post release. 

“There is clearly issues that she needs to address. She needs serious rehabilitation,” said Mr Fitzgerald.

He asked the judge to consider suspending a sentence in order to see how she is doing post release. 

Judge Fay imposed a ten-month sentence but suspended the final four months for two years. She also order that the woman be placed under the supervision of the probation services for 12 months and directed that she engage in treatment. The sentence was backdated to October 13.