“HE wants to avail of dental treatment” was the unexpected response given to Judge Eugene O’Kelly when he asked why a defendant abused him for not giving a long enough prison sentence. Michael Whelan, a 34-year-old serial shoplifter and thief with over 213 previous convictions, was before Limerick District Court this week pleading guilty to the theft of a packet of razors worth €15 from the Ballinacurra Pharmacy.
Currently serving a four-month sentence handed down at the start of January for a spate of thefts committed last September, Michael Whelan, with an address at Kylefea, Croom had previously protested to Judge O’Kelly for giving him too lenient a sentence.
Judge O’Kelly asked Ted McCarthy, solicitor for the accused “is this why he continues to re-offend”.
Mr McCarthy said that Mr Whelan had been looking for a longer sentence so as he could avail of “dental work while in prison” and added that the reason his client offended was to primarily feed his alcohol habit.
Expressing surprise at the defendant’s response, Judge O’Kelly convicted Michael Whelan and sentenced him to one month in prison for the theft of the razors on January 4 last.
Michael Whelan had similar outbursts at a previous sitting of the district court in Rathekeale when he shouted at Judge Mary O’Halloran, “I want 12 months”.
However, the judge, who previously referred to him “as a bit of a nuisance in the community to put it mildly”, then sentenced him to four months in prison for the theft of cider and razor blades from a Spar shop in Croom.
