Strong view on ‘tooled-up’ young men

Courts have to take a strong view on young men going out tooled up with weapons, as such actions had the potential to result in fatalities.

That was the position taken by Judge David Riordan yesterday at Cork Circuit Appeals Court.

He was dealing with an appeal against a jail sentence by a young man caught with a machete.

Sgt David Fitzgibbon said gardaí on duty on the night witnessed a man running through Churchfield in Cork with a machete in the early hours of the morning.

As they drew near to him he dropped the machete behind a car. They retrieved it, and Paul Harrington, of 20 Coolmaine Crescent, Hollyhill, Cork, pleaded guilty to carrying the weapon.

He was on his way home from a bonfire when he found the weapon, his barrister, Alan O’Dwyer, said yesterday at the appeal of a four-month sentence.

Judge Riordan said: “Courts have to take a strong view on young men going out tooled up with weapons. It often ends in fatality.”

Instead of the four-month sentence imposed at the District Court, Judge Riordan increased it to seven months and suspended the last six months of that sentence.