‘Knife was for cutting pizza’

Gardaí heard screams from a house that “she’s got a knife” and then saw a woman with a red-handled, red-bladed knife in her hand, which she only dropped on being threatened with pepper spray. She later claimed she was helping neighbours to cut pizza.

Garda Craig Peterson said gardaí were alerted to an incident at Shamrock Lawn in Mayfield, Cork, on May 4 last and arrived to find a crowd outside Number 23.

Garda Peterson said Emer O’Gorman of 24 Shannon Lawn was “intoxicated, angry, and shouting at residents of 23 Shannon Lawn”.

Garda Peterson said he first saw O’Gorman “walking past me with great haste and purpose to enter 23 Shannon Lawn”.

He continued: “I then heard screams, ‘she has a knife’. A male escorted her out. He was holding her right hand which had a red-handled, red-bladed knife.

“I grabbed her right hand and told her to drop the knife. I threatened I would have to deploy pepper spray,” he said, adding that she was under the influence of an intoxicant.

Garda Peterson subsequently interviewed O’Gorman after caution. She told him: “I found the knife in my garden.”

Asked why she went into the other house with the knife, O’Gorman replied: “They had cooked pizza and wanted a pizza slicer.”

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, challenged the prosecution evidence on the charge that she produced a knife when she was about to commit an assault.

Mr Buttimer said Garda Peterson did not see her carrying a knife when she went into the house for whatever happened. He said he only witnessed the knife when another person had her under his control.

He submitted at Cork District Court that there was insufficient evidence.

Judge Con O’Leary agreed and dismissed the charge against O’Gorman, aged 35.