Man with crutches who shouted abuse at gardaí on Cork's Mary Elmes Bridge has sentence cut

The man had his overall sentence reduced from five months to two months

The gardaí were responding to a public order incident involving other people at Mary Elmes Bridge when the incident happened. File picture

A man on crutches verbally abused gardaí dealing with an incident on Mary Elmes Bridge in Cork.

That was back in January and now at Cork Circuit Appeals Court he has been sentenced to two months in prison for charges arising out of this and other incidents.

39-year-old Timothy O’Mahony of Cork Simon Community appealed a total sentence of five months' imprisonment that had been imposed on him at Cork District Court.

Sergeant John Kelleher outlined the background to the incidents including the one on the bridge.

“On January 13 at 4.10pm, gardaí responded to a public order incident at Mary Elmes Bridge. The man refused to give his details saying, ‘F*** off, you don’t need my details at all. I done nothing’.

“Garda Iain King said Timothy O’Mahony refused to leave the scene where gardaí were dealing with a public order matter regarding other parties.

“When Mr O’Mahony was directed a number of times to leave the scene of the disturbance he responded by saying, ‘Where do you want me to go?’ And he refused to leave,” Sgt Kelleher said.

The appellant had 86 previous convictions including 31 under the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. Judge Helen Boyle said the probation report on the appellant painted a "disastrous" picture of him.

The appellant’s barrister, Orla Meere, said that in his favour he had obtained stable accommodation through Simon and that they were willing to work with him. She added that he had come off heroin and gone on a methadone treatment programme.

Judge Boyle said that she would reduce the overall sentence to a period of two months.