News
Conman duped woman (82) into giving him large sums of money
A convicted sex offender faces prison later this year for coercing a trusting and charitable 82-year-old woman into giving him large sums of cash over a twelve-month period.
Ethan Ward (25), 27 Lui na Greine, Western Distributor Road, Salthill, is currently serving one year or a two-year prison sentence, imposed on him on May 12, for having sex with a vulnerable 16-year-old schoolgirl in a fast-food restaurant toilet.
Ward pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court two weeks later to inducing the elderly woman to give him €1,630 cash on dates between April and December 2015.
He pleaded guilty also to stealing a €1,000 cheque from the woman and lodging it in his own account on a date between January 2015 and January of this year and to inducing the woman to give him a further €250 on January 8 last.
He further pleaded guilty to inducing the woman to give him €90 cash on January 6 last.
The theft and fraud offences were committed while Ward was out on bail, awaiting sentence for the sexual assault on the schoolgirl.
Prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy said the pleas to the above charges were acceptable on the basis that Ward was admitting his guilt to three other similar charges of deception.
Sentence was adjourned to this week for the preparation of a probation report on Ward and a impact statement from the victim.
The court heard Ward had not bothered to attend his probation appointments in the prison, so he could not be assessed.
Garda Karen Higgins told the sentence hearing on Wednesday it would never be known exactly how much money Ward took, but the woman had estimated it was at least €3,000.
She said the woman made a complaint to Gardai on January 19 last that she had been giving money to a man for a year and she had just realised he had been lying to her about his circumstances.
The woman first encountered Ward begging outside various churches around the city a year ago and he told her his name was Ethan O’Leary and he needed money to stay in hostels. She took pity on him and gave him money on a few occasions.
He then turned up at her home in Salthill and she was concerned about that because she had not told him where she lived.
Garda Higgins said the victim was a very kind person and she felt sorry for Ward. She regularly gave him money when he called to her home and if she did not have any cash in the house, Ward would accompany her to the ATM machine, walking a few metres behind her.
“She used to give him cups of tea and things to eat when he’d call to her home.
“As it went on, she felt pressured into giving him money and he started calling more regularly to her home,” Garda Higgins said.
The woman wrote a cheque to “Ethan O’Leary” on one occasion and her suspicions were aroused when it was never cashed.
She went with food to a hostel where Ward told her he was staying, but staff said no one named O’Leary was staying there.
The woman finally confided in her local priest and the Gardai were contacted.
Garda Higgins said that on a previous occasion, Ward stole a blank cheque from the woman while in her house and later cashed it, to the value of €1,000.
Ward was arrested outside the woman’s home last January. She had refused to let him in but he came in and she told him to get out.
A roll of duct tape and three wire coat hangers were found when Gardai searched Ward’s rucksack.
“He never showed any remorse and he denied defrauding this 82-year-old woman. She’s too scared to come to court,” Garda Higgins added.
The woman’s victim impact statement said she goes to Mass every day and contributes generously to various charities. She said she always saw the good in people.
“She knows she gave him a lot of money and she feels very gullible.
“He always had a story she believed. She didn’t know at the time that he was a con artist and a criminal. She thinks she may have given him €3,000.
“She now finds it hard to trust people and is more cautious answering the door,” Garda Higgins said of the woman.
The court heard Ward was using the money to feed his €100-a-day heroin addiction. Before that he was living off his wife and two children’s welfare allowances.
Garda Higgins said he had 19 previous convictions, the latest being for defilement of a child for which he was currently serving one-year of a two-year sentence imposed in May.
He had other convictions for thefts, burglary, possession of drugs, knives and public order offences.
Defence barrister, Conal McCarthy said his client had been in custody since his arrest on January 20. He said Ward feared for his life in Castlerea Prison and was on 23- hour lockdown for his own safety.
He said that was the reason his client could not attend probation appointments in the prison. He had asked to be moved to the Midlands Prison and his transfer was granted last month.
Judge Rory McCabe said the maximum sentence for the crime of deception was five years, while the maximum for theft was ten.
He said the deception charges before the court merited a three-year sentence while the theft of the cheque merited five years.
“This man engaged in a nasty campaign of milking money from this lady and she eventually became afraid not to give him money,” the judge said.
Judge McCabe noted Ward had previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty while his victim was vulnerable, decent and defenceless.
He said the court had been given a excuse why Ward had not bothered to attend the probation officer in Castlerea Prison for assessment, but it would now give him a chance to do so while in the Midlands Prison.
The judge then adjourned the matter to October 6 for the probation assessment to take place and he directed a probation report be furnished to the court in October.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
