Man admits stealing £40,000 of jewellery from Mount Stewart

Carlo Homes, 60, of Cupar Street in the west of the city, was due to go on trial at Downpatrick Crown Court on a single charge that on May 17, 2015 he trespassed Mount Stewart in Co Down and stole a quantity of jewellery.

A jury was sworn in for the trial in front of Judge Stephen Fowler QC but the jury was not put in charge of the case.

In a dramatic twist, his defence counsel Conan Rae asked that Holmes be rearraigned on the sole charge he faced and he pleaded guilty to stealing the haul of expensive jewellery.

Following his guilty plea, Holmes applied for continuing bail ahead of his sentencing next month.

Crown lawyer Laura Ivers said that if the court was to grant continuing bail, the prosecution would be seeking a number of “additional requirements’’.

She told the court that one of those requirements was that Holmes was not to leave the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland ahead of his sentencing.

Ms Ivers said a further requirement was that he must surrender his passport before being released on bail.

She also said the prosecution was opposed to a defence application to a relaxation of his bail signing conditions at Musgrave PSNI station from three times a week to twice a week.

The defence barrister said Holmes was already the subject of an electronic curfew from 10 pm to 7 am.

Judge Fowler QC ordered that Holmes must not leave Northern Ireland and he must also surrender his passport before he could be released on bail.

“I will relax his signing conditions from three times a week to twice a week,” he added.

Holmes will be sentenced on May 19 following the completion of pre-sentence report by the Probation Service.

No details were given in court about the nature of the charges but when Holmes first appeared at Ards Magistrates’ Court last year, a judge was told that the burglary was not discovered until two days later.

Lady Rose Lauritzen, daughter of the late Lady Mairi Bury, discovered that between £35,000 and £40,000 worth of her jewellery had been taken from her bedroom.

Despite the property having been given to the National Trust in the 1970s, members of the Londonderry family continued to live there in private quarters.

A constable told the magistrates’ hearing at the time it was believed Holmes, who has 110 previous convictions, had found a key for Lady Rose’s bedroom.

The court also heard that Holmes was arrested at Belfast International Airport, where he was about to board a flight bound for Amsterdam, and carrying £1,700 in cash. However, none of the jewellery has yet been recovered.

Mount Stewart is an 18th century house and garden on the east shore of Strangford Lough near Greyabbey.

Famous for its beautiful gardens, it was the Irish seat of the Vane-Tempest-Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry.

The family played a leading role in British and Irish social and political life.

Prince Charles, who is president of the National Trust, visited Mount Stewart several days after the burglary during a trip to Northern Ireland in May last year.

The property had undergone a dramatic three-year restoration programme before the Royal vist.