Man refused to leave hotel room after ‘emotional’ call to mother

A Pakistani national was so overcome with emotion after phoning his mother for the first time in 10 years that he refused to leave his hotel room in Cork two hours after checkout time.

Irfan Muhammad, aged 35, of 384A Blarney St, Cork, checked into the Maldron hotel on Wednesday night and should have checked out at 12pm on Thursday.

Hotel staff called to his room a number of times but he would not go. By 2pm, they were so concerned that they had to phone gardaí.

Garda Tim Walsh and a colleague arrived at the hotel bedroom. He told Cork District Court they spent up to 15 minutes trying to calm the defendant down. There was an empty one-litre vodka bottle on the floor and the accused was highly intoxicated and argumentative. He refused to leave the hoteland had to be arrested.

Solicitor Eddie Burke said: “He had gone drinking in the room. He spoke to his mother on the phone. He had not spoken to her in 10 years. He found it difficult to handle the emotions.

“He did not want to leave the room, he felt safer there,” Mr Burke said of his client, who has been living in Ireland since 2008.

Apart from traffic offences, he had no criminal convictions. His relationship had ended, which is why he ended up in the hotel room.

Judge Malone said that the defendant should know how to behave at his age.

The judge said he would refer the accused to the probation service before sentencing him.