Cork grandmother jailed for 90 days for repeated facemask offences

"The court cannot, unfortunately, indulge in sympathetic speculation as to possible causes for the offending," said Judge James McNulty, after deeming the results of a medical report "inconclusive".

Margaret Buttimer. Picture: Larry Cummins

A Cork grandmother has been jailed for a total of 90 days over not wearing a facemask in a shop in what a judge said were offences that were "deliberate and repeated, persistent and wilful, and without justification, or any lawful excuse".

Margaret Buttimer (aged 66) of the Cottage, St Fintan’s Rd, Bandon, Co Cork, had already received a suspended sentence for an earlier offence in which she did not wear a mask, as required by laws introduced to fight the spread of Covid-19.