Twenty-one-year old had 37 previous convictions
A MAN who punched and kicked out at gardai attempting to arrest him and became “highly abusive” towards them after a domestic dispute with his partner escalated outside Supermacs on the Ennis Road last year, was before Limerick District court charged with public order and road traffic offences.
Twenty-one-year-old Darren Harty, with an address at Clondrinagh Halting Site, was before the District Court as the DPP consented to summary disposal of the case and not proceed on more serious indictable charges at Circuit Court level.
Giving evidence, Inspector Seamus Ruane noted that the accused was found to be in an aggressive state and several times resisted arrest.
The court was told that Harty, “punched and kicked out at gardai,” before being finally restrained and arrested.
Inspector Ruane added that the accused remained aggressive and continued the abuse during his detention, spat at a female garda in Henry Station, claiming he was “HIV positive” after the incident.
The inspector described it as a most “unsavoury incident,” and that the female garda was traumatised, and that a number of gardai were injured during the “attack”.
The accused had 37 previous convictions, with the most recent being a €500 road traffic fine in December 2008.
Details were also given of previous convictions including various assault matters in May 2008, where a number of four and six month prison sentences were handed down by the courts.
Judge O’Donnell asked the inspector as to the welfare of the female garda member following the incident, and he replied that while being injured on the hand, the incident surrounding the spitting was “unsavoury and disturbing” for her.
Addressing the court on behalf of her client, Sarah Ryan, solicitor, said that she wanted to clear up one matter in that there was “no truth to the HIV threat”.
She added that the incident escalated after a domestic dispute and it carried on to the gardai.
Her client, she said, wanted to plead guilty at the earliest possible time, and she hoped for a community service sentence over a custodial one.
“Mr Harty did not set out to assault anyone that day, he is a 21-year-old man and father of one child. He drove a short distance in the car when he knew he shouldn’t have done so”.
Judge O’Donnell said that it was indeed a “serious matter, even if it was a domestic incident that escalated”.
He added that it was an “appalling performance” but would give credit for the early plea in the matter.
He convicted and sentenced the accused to six months in prison for the offence, and took the other public order matters into consideration.
For the insurance Road Traffic offences before the court, Harty was fined €500 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Harty was then taken into custody and remanded to Limerick Prison.
