The man arrested last Sunday for allegedly stabbing his brother and threatening the ambulance staff who came for him, was jailed for two months for an outstanding and unrelated public order offence in the District Court this week (April 21 ).
Appearing from custody where he had been held since his appearance at a special sitting of the court two days previously, Paul Greene (45 ) previously from Sarsfield Square, Athlone but now of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to an incident that happened at 3.15am on January 12, 2009 after gardai found him lying on a footpath in Irishtown.
“He was practically asleep, and when he was woken he was very uncooperative. He had to be brought to the station for his own safety” said Inspector Nicholas Farrell.
On Monday (April 19 ) Greene was charged in relation to the incident in Sarsfield Square on Sunday afternoon where his brother was injured with a knife and the subsequent attending paramedics threatened.
When on Wednesday, Greene’s solicitor Mr Mark Cooney sought bail for his client, Inspector Farrell opposed this on behalf of the State as Greene had no address, was still to face more serious charges and “may interfere with the witness, his brother”.
Inspector Farrell also told the judge Greene has six bench previous bench warrants for not appearing in court in 2008 and 2009.
In his defence, Mr Cooney informed the court his client had been working in the UK for 10 months then, and that he had been married and living in St Greallan’s Terrace in Ballinasloe, but had recently been living with his brother in Sarsfield Square, who he accepted had been the injured partner.
Judge David Anderson refused bail on the defendant and was then told Greene had 49 previous convictions, the most recent of which was a three month jail sentence from January 2009. Only one conviction, in 2005 was for assault, the court learned.
Judge Anderson then jailed Greene for two months on the Section 6 public order offence, and set an independent surety at €1,000.
He remanded him in custody until May 5 on the assault causing harm charge from Monday.
Greene will also have to appear on a number of outstanding public order charges in Galway but details of when were not made known to the court.
