Midleton man who threatened to 'bust' garda narrowly avoids jail

Suspended sentence for outburst and threats issued when summons was delivered to his home

A man who issued threats to a garda received a suspended sentence in Midleton Court.

A man who threatened to “bust” a garda, squaring up to him "nose to nose” when he delivered a summons to his Cork home, narrowly avoided a custodial sentence.

Philip O’Leary, 26, “barged out the door", throwing the summons at the officer and threatened to attack him if he ever came back.

He was charged with assault under Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 following the incident on February 7 at 7.15pm.

When Garda Micheal Hynes called to the defendant’s address at Banshane, Midleton that evening another man answered the door and said the defendant was not home.

But Gda Hynes saw O’Leary in the caravan and proceeded to hand him the summons.

O’Leary then “barged out the door”, threw the summons back at Garda Hynes and “angrily squared up to him, nose to nose,” Midleton District Court heard.

He threatened to attack the guard if he ever called back with another summons.

Defence solicitor Joseph Cuddigan said that his client “apologises profusely” for his conduct that day.

“There was no physical contact, it was an outburst of verbal rage,” Mr Cuddigan said.

“He acknowledges and apologises for his behaviour.

“He would have been, up to the recent past, a relatively heavy user of cannabis. Some people foolishly maintain that it has no side- effects but it can lead to psychosis - this man was suffering from that,” Mr Cuddigan said.

"He has abstained for five weeks, hopefully this is the start of what will be a successful period for him.

He said that he feels more energised and engaged with life.

“Now he is doing something to address what I think is the root cause of the problem.” 

He said that despite his client’s initial resistance, he had obeyed the summons and turned up to court.

He said that his client was only on disability allowance, pleading for leniency.

But Judge Joanne Carroll said: “I take a very poor view of this.

A member of an Garda Síochána is out doing very important work and this man squares up to him and threatens a law enforcement officer.

“Members of An Garda Síochána are out serving society and do not deserve to be put in that position.

“I heard what you said about cannabis - on that basis and that alone he is not going to prison today.” Judge Carroll sentenced O’Leary to two months in prison but suspended it for 18 months.

She warned him that if he does have a problem with cannabis and gets into similar difficulty again he would have to go to prison to serve a sentence.

Midleton District Court heard that O’Leary had five previous convictions, the most recent being for drug possession for which he was fined €100 on April 21.