A MAN who had 102 previous convictions and had committed 73 offences while was on bail told a Limerick judge he has “turned his life around”.
The man – who cannot be named as the accusation against him was of breaching a domestic barring order – was arrested on the outskirts of Limerick City after his mother called Gardaí.
She told Gardaí that her son had asked her for money, then went away and returned brandishing a bread knife.
Gardaí told Judge Patricia Harney in the Limerick District Court that they arrested the man a few hundreds yards away from his mother’s home and found a breadknife hidden down his trousers.
Gardaí said the man was “highly intoxicated and staggering from side to side”.
There was a Garda objection to bail in the court, as the man is currently on bail on charges under the public order act and there was a baring order in force, forbidding him from going into the house.
Judge Harney heard that of the previous offences against the accused, 18 were for breaching barring orders imposed by a court.
Appearing before the court the day after Gardaí had arrested him, he asked the judge to allow him out on bail to spend Christmas with his family.
“I’m back with my wife – I’ve turned my life around,” he said. “With the support of my wife, I’m off the drink.”
“Since when? Yesterday?” the judge asked.
Judge Harney said that the overriding consideration in allowing someone charged with a criminal offence to remain out on bail is that they not engage in criminal conduct.
“I believe the Garda evidence and I note that he has failed to appear (for court dates) before. He’s taken nine bench warrants (for his arrest)”, the judge noted.
Judge Harney refused bail and remanded the man in custody.
