A burglar who eat scrambled eggs with a Muslim after attacking him with a knife and stealing his mobile phones will be attending residential drug treatment before sentencing, the Irish Times reports.
Stefan Boyle, 28, was seen by Ali Yassine hiding under a table in a mosque and asked to leave.
Boyle then jumped at him with a knife before he tried to escape through a window.
Mr Yassine, who is a caretaker of the mosque, kicked the burglar in self defence and told him to relax.
He then made scrambled eggs for Boyle and sat with him, while the perpetrator told him about his life.
Garda Seán Duignan told Seamus Clarke BL, prosecuting, that Mr Yassine wasn’t aware until after Boyle left that he had stolen two mobile phones from his bedroom, which was in a building linked to the mosque.
The next day, while Mr Yassine was in the city centre trying to get his phones blocked, he bumped into Boyle.
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He asked him if he stole the phones and Boyle returned them back to him and apologised.
Boyle, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary of Ali Hussain House on 2 November 2016.
He has 110 previous convictions, 63 of which are for burglary.
Judge Karen O’Connor acknowledged that Boyle had been assessed as “suitable” for residential treatment, and said she would delay sentencing until January 2018 to allow him attend when a place became available.
During the sentence hearing, Garda Duignan said Boyle was arrested eight days later after they got a clear description of him from Mr Yassine and were able to review the mosque’s home camera system footage.
He told gardai that he had got on well with the victim, describing him as a “good guy” and apologised.
He said he wanted to get money for drugs and had forgotten that he had taken the mobile phones during his 30-minute chat with Mr Yassine.
