A ZIMBABWEAN woman based in Ireland told her Syrian colleague that she had a powerful dosage of juju which would protect the duo from being arrested and prosecuted as they committed a crime spree in which they robbed six vulnerable pensioners of about US$36 000.
Precious Moyo, 38, a care worker, had nursed all the six victims.
One of the victims passed away three months after they pleaded guilty.
The police investigations involved harvesting crucial CCTV footage from various locations to track their movements around the town and analysing fingerprints and DNA.
One segment of video footage showed Moyo holding wads of money in a shop.
The first incident was at the house of a woman aged 73.Wearing a Covid face mask, Moyo hung around her home for two hours before sneaking in and taking a handbag containing €24,000.
Moyo then jogged to a taxi and went home.
Her accomplice was Yamen Alhamada, a Syrian who came to Ireland with family to escape the war in his country, and was now a college engineering student.
Alhamanda told the police he went along with Moyo’s plans to commit the crimes because she was “into black magic called juju, and he would be protected if he did what she said.”
Moyo was jailed for eight years while Alhamanda was jailed for six years.Both pleaded guilty to the charges.
Moyo, a mother of three, blamed isolation from her family, a violent marriage she escaped at home, the depression she has suffered and a drug addiction for turning her into a mobster.
The duo’s crime spree also included violent burglaries.
Moyo lived at the Athlone Accommodation Centre at Lissywollen, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
he burglary and aggravated burglary offences were described by Judge Keenan Johnson as heartbreaking and callous.
Judge Johnson said Moyo had worked for a home help agency for a year, where she developed “intimate” knowledge about the households of the six elderly men and women aged 73 to 89 suffering from serious health problems.
The judge said he could not express his horror at the pair’s actions and emphasised that the offences were callous, breached the victims’ trust, leaving them isolated, vulnerable and terrified.
He accepted that Moyo was the main offender in the premeditated crimes which represented a fundamental breakdown of trust and she had abused her position in a most appalling way.
The crimes happened after Moyo was let go from an agency following complaints made against her.
Judge Johnson said the court had to send out a message and it was clear victims were traumatised and their “crime spree” resulted in permanent life changes with some no longer living independently while others were in “constant fear”.
Their crimes damaged the reputation of genuine immigrants the vast majority of whom, the judge stressed, were law abiding and contributed to Irish society.
Judge Johnson said he did not want people to highlight this case as being indicative of immigrants.
The defence pleaded with Judge Johnson to note the early guilty pleas avoided a substantial trial with around 100 witnesses and further traumatisation of the elderly victims.
Counsel submitted the court could give a 30 percent reduced sentence because they had expressed remorse for assaulting and “terrorising” the victims and had the prospect of rehabilitation.
Moyo moved to Ireland five years ago.
She claimed that her father’s death, when she was 13, impacted her and there were also claims she suffered abuse from older men in her community.
Alhamada “spiralled out of control” from cannabis and alcohol abuse that led to a €12,000 drug debt with pressure to pay, and he “never thought of the victims of these offences when he was committing them”.
Neither defendant addressed the court or showed any emotion.
Four incidents occurred in housing estates in Athlone and another at a house about five kilometres outside the town between June 14 and September 8 last year.
On August 30, Moyo drove Alhamada to the house of another woman, aged 89, with advanced dementia.He knocked and told her he was looking for a missing person.
She let him check the house, believing he was a policeman but he stole her handbag, which contained over €200, and bank cards.
The victim’s son represented her in court.
He provided an impact statement saying she already had money stolen by a carer, and this breach of trust added to her vulnerability and insecurity.
Two days later, at 7 pm, Moyo, wearing a wig, surgical gloves and mask, drove Alhamada in her Nissan Qashqai to the home of another former client. – H-Metro Reporter/The Journal