Teen dad jailed for 14 months after judge tells him ‘stop the rot’
Along with offences of being threatening and abusive, intoxication, and a theft, Stanley Wright, aged 19, carried out unprovoked assaults resulting in injury, on people in West Cork.
Some of the offences were committed while Wright, from Togher Village, Dunmanway, had received a sentence, suspended for two years, for an assault.
His mother, Suzanne, yesterday made an impassioned plea for help for her son but Wright was jailed for a total of 14 months.
At Skibbereen District Court, Judge James McNulty said Wright had received substantial support from the HSE and the social services.
“It’s time now for him to go clean and straight and to go away — to prison,” said Judge McNulty.
Wright appealed to have the sentence deferred for a week so he “could make up” with his family and see his infant daughter.
His mother blamed her son’s “huge problem with alcohol”.
“I personally believes he needs help, if that’s possible,” she said.
“He was calm when he had a girlfriend and they had a baby. The relationship is broken up now and it has caused him huge emotional distress. He has dealt with it through alcohol. I would love if he got help. He has such a miserable life at the moment and I worry about him, every night I go to bed and I pray.”
Judge McNulty said: “He’s an adult now and he must act responsibly and take responsibility for his behaviour. I think it’s fair to say he had an enormous amount of support and encouragement from the social services agencies.
“He has been given a good deal of latitude in this court and, across the country, judges are kind, patient, and compassionate with people with social difficulties arising from their upbringing. But there comes a time when the patience runs out.
“We have to take steps to stop the rot. He is responsible for his daughter who is an infant, he needs to go away and reflect on his responsibilities.
“When he emerges from prison, he can make the call if he wants to seek help or to be responsible towards his mother, his siblings and his daughter, or whether he will return to his old ways.”
Reactivating a three-month sentence for an assault suspended in March at Clonakilty District Court, Judge McNulty also sentenced Wright to six months in jail, to run consecutively, for assaults causing harm to 16-year-olds at Dunmanway swimming pool on Feb 26; two months for threatening and abusive behaviour at Main St, Bantry, on Mar 31; one month for stealing wine from Londis, Bridge St, Skibbereen on Aug 21; and a two months’ jail for threatening and abusive behaviour on Main St, Schull, on Aug 28.
