A report of a court case in last Saturday's editions and an opinion piece by Fintan O'Toole on Tuesday referred to a burglary by Paul Bewley at the offices of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern at St Luke's in Dublin.
The Court Service has pointed out that the sentence imposed for that offence, taking into account previous convictions including a number of burglaries, was two years imprisonment. Bewley also received a five-year sentence for a separate robbery in which he used an imitation firearm. This sentence was made consecutive to the earlier two-year sentence because Bewley was on temporary release at the time of the offence. However, due to his chronic addiction and need for assistance, two years of the sentence was suspended for three years, on strict conditions, so as to allow for the active intervention of the Probation Service and for residential drug rehabilitation.