A man has appeared before a special sitting of Tralee District Court charged with theft and the unauthorised taking of a vehicle.
Billy Burns, of no fixed abode, is accused of carrying out the alleged offences in October last year.
The 51-year-old is the son of Miriam Burns who was found murdered in her home in Ardshanavooley, Killarney on Monday.
Billy Burns, who had spent a number of nights sleeping in Killarney National Park, is charged with the unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle in Killarney on October 3rd last year.
He's also charged with the theft of fuel worth €41.05 from a forecourt in Dublin on the following day.
Gardaí opposed bail arguing that he posed a flight risk, given that he had been out of the jurisdiction for 10 months.
Mr Burns’s solicitor Pádraig O’Connell said no bench warrant had ever had to be issued for his client so how could he represent a flight risk.
He said gardaí indicated that the offences were minor and would be treated summarily in the District Court and therefore questioned why bail would be denied.
Mr O’Connell said this would violate his client’s fundamental constitutional right to liberty.
Mr O’Connell indicated that as part of the terms of bail granted, Mr Burns would stay with his aunt in Skibbereen and comply with all conditions including signing on at the local garda station twice daily, comply with a nightly curfew and stay away from Killarney and the alleged victims of the car incident.
However, Judge Joanne Carroll said she needed a precise address for Mr Burns’s aunt rather than simply the street she lives on; it also emerged that Mr Burns’ defence had no phone number to contact the woman.
Judge Carroll acceded to a request from Mr O’Connell that Mr Burns be remanded in custody at Tralee Garda Station to appear at 1pm tomorrow at Tralee District Court to allow him time to make arrangements with the Simon Community in Cork to provide accommodation for his client as part of any proposed bail conditions.
