A man jailed for five months last week (March 4 ) was told in court this week (March 11 ) he would not have to face any additional charges of breaching a barring order if his former partner didn't turn up in court a third time to give evidence on March 18.
Anthony Dolan (28 ), of Grotto View, Battery Heights, Athlone was charged with three breaches of the order and also faced 19 bench warrants for not appearing in court, two criminal damages, three public order charges, as well as one for drug possession.
It was for one of these public order offences that he was given the five month sentence after the court heard he had four previous public order convictions in the space of a week in March 2007 for which he received a suspended sentence.
Last week, his solicitor, Mr Padraig Quinn, told the court that in the case of the barring order breaches, the injured party had contacted him and voiced her wish to withdraw these charges.
Mr Quinn said he advised the woman to contact the Gardai with this and though she said she did, Superintendant Aidan Glacken could not confirm receipt of such information.
This week Mr Quinn told the court that though the injured party had been in Athlone on March 4 and had a babysitter arranged, she still didn't turn up to inform the court of her stated intention to withdraw the charges.
"She can't have it both ways," said sitting judge, Timothy Lucey.
Mr Quinn asked for bail for Dolan.
"It doesn't seem fair to have my client in jail for another week because she can't make up her mind," he said.
The prosecution sought another week to clarify Dolan's former partner's intentions and the judge agreed.
"Tell your client that if the witness doesn't turn up next week these [charges] will be struck out," the judge told Mr Quinn.
Last week (March 4 ), Judge Eamon O'Brien heard the facts on all the other charges which stretched back to July 2007.
Mr Quinn handed over a sum of money as compensation for the two criminal damage charges for drunkenly damaging a taxi and a jeep, and the court also heard how Dolan had been involved in a number of late-night altercations on Church Street and Connacht Street.
Dolan had also been found with three ecstasy tablets on his person on April 13 on Castlemaine Street after being searched by the garda called to the scene by a taxi driver Dolan had refused to pay.
Mr Quinn explained how Dolan's large number of charges for failing to appear in court involved “a certain amount of denial”.
“He hid his head in the sand and hoped it would go away,” he said.
“The common denominator with all these is his state of intoxification but he has been sober for the last five months.”
He explained how his client's behaviour was because of a “most acrimonious and difficult break-up in relation to access to his child”, but that this had now been resolved.
Mr Quinn explained how Dolan had recently got a contract with the Land Commission to clear and sell lumber from its lands and was “now on his own two feet”.
He sought a non-custodial sentence for his client but Judge O'Brien disagreed and gave Dolan five months on one sample public order charge and fined him €200 for the possession of the drugs on April 13 last.
He ordered this sentence be backdated to February 26 and postponed sentencing on the barring order breaches until March 18 to see if Dolan's former partner was willing to drop the charges as claimed.
