Man with scissors was ‘wrapping presents’

A man from the northside of Cork City, who claimed to be lost in the southside, was carrying a scissors when gardaí searched him, but claimed he had earlier been wrapping presents.

Judge Leo Malone said Gordon Browne’s explanation for having scissors on November 29, 2013, was not plausible. Convicted at Cork District Court under the Offensive Weapons Act, he received a six-month suspended jail term.

Insp Pat Meaney quizzing Browne, 29, said: “If I was wrapping presents at home, I wouldn’t be inclined to bring the scissors around in my pocket afterwards.”

Northside-born Browne, living on the southside at 61 Summerstown Rd, Wilton, said he had been wrapping presents in his girlfriend’s house at Courtown Park, Knocknaheeny, before Garda Paul O’Sullivan searched him at Togher and discovered the scissors.

Insp Meaney inquired what Browne was doing in Togher when travelling from Knocknaheeny to Wilton. “I don’t know my way around the southside. I might have got lost. I knew my way from Aldi’s, I was able to make my way home,” he testified. He said he was a week late wrapping a birthday present for his daughter and had lots of Christmas presents to wrap.

Insp Meaney suggested Browne was unusually well organised for Christmas. He asked:

“Where was all the wrapping going on?”

“In Courtown Park, I wasn’t walking around the streets with a scissors in my possession,” Browne said.

Insp Meaney: “No, you were driving around the streets with a scissors in your possession which is much of a muchness.”

Browne pleaded guilty to another offence committed on December 3, where Garda Rory O’Connor searched his flat and cannabis worth €50.

Judge Malone gave him a concurrent five-month suspended term for having cannabis for his own use.