Cork judge has the book thrown at him

A Circuit Court judge had a book thrown at him in court yesterday by a disgruntled man who lost his appeal against a conviction for harassing a garda.

Michael Preator, of Wellington Rd, Cork, lost his appeal shortly after 3pm yesterday.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin was being told of a breach of an order made at Cork District Court when Preator was jailed for seven months.

Preator spoke over Garda Michael Nagle, who addressed the judge on the breach of the district court order.

Suddenly, Preator, aged 61, picked up a legal tome weighing over 1kg and threw it at Judge Ó Donnabháin, who managed to duck and block the missile. Preator, who represented himself, had been standing 3m in front of the judge.

Three gardaí then wrestled Preator to the ground and escorted him to custody, where he will commence a sentence that was increased to 12 months.

The book, which runs to about 1,000 pages in heavy binding, was Consolidated Criminal Legislation by Gerald Goldberg. Judge Ó Donnabháin said afterward: “That is as close as I want to come to the law today.”

Preator lost his appeal against a conviction of harassing a garda by distributing pamphlets claiming the garda was a paedophile and homophobic and gay. A seven-month jail sentence was imposed in October on the 61-year-old arising out of his campaign of distributing abusive, insulting, and damaging allegations against a member of An Garda Síochána over a 12-year period.

The affair started on April 21, 2003, when the garda said he had the misfortune to arrest Michael Preator for a public order violation.

The particular charge on which he was convicted related to the more recent period between January 19, 2010, and February 17, 2014, when he distributed material that was abusive and threatening to the garda who arrested him in 2003.

Judge Ó Donnabháin dismissed the appeal and increased the sentence from seven months to 12 months at Cork Circuit Appeals Court yesterday.

The judge told Preator to behave himself a number of times during the appeal, in which he represented himself.

At one stage, Preator called the judge a scumbag. The judge adjourned the case at about 12.30pm until after lunch because of another verbal outburst.

Preator was previously jailed for 10 months in January 2004 for harassment of the same injured party and he also had convictions for distributing injurious material about the member of An Garda Síochána.