A homeless man who was found intoxicated and carrying a knife on the busy promenade in Salthill received seven months detention when he appeared at Galway District Court.
Marius Sukys (20 ) of no fixed abode pleaded guilty to possession of a knife and to being intoxicated in a public place, and to two counts of theft.
According to Garda evidence, on September 21, 2009, at 7.20pm three gardai had been on patrol when they were flagged down by members of the public who complained of three males causing a nuisance to walkers on the Promenade in Salthill. The gardai spoke to the defendant who was extremely intoxicated and abusive. When asked to empty his pockets a kitchen knife was produced. Sukys told the gardai that he had the knife for fishing purposes but he had no other fishing material on him.
The knife was then handed into court and inspected by Judge Mary Fahy who noted: “That’s a very, very, dangerous weapon. This is very sharply pointed.
Regarding the thefts, Inspector Michael Coppinger told the court that the defendant entered Dunnes Stores in Westside on September 18, 2009, and stole cosmetics to the value of €129.29. He was stopped and the items were recovered. On August 28, 2009, the defendant entered SuperValu on Fr Griffin Road and stole four items of food. Inspector Coppinger then said that Sukys has six previous convictions which include two counts of theft for which he received a two month jail sentence in November 2009.
Defence solicitor Valerie Corcoran said that her client, a Lithuanian national, came to Ireland with his mother and siblings four years ago and had lived at home in Claremorris. However following a “falling out” earlier this year he moved out and went to live with much older friends at Fairgreen Hostel. Ms Corcoran said that Sukys had never got into trouble until he moved in with his “so-called” friends.
“He was out on the Prom where hundreds of people walk. He thinks it’s OK to go around armed with this [the knife]. It’s so dangerous, there’s no excuse for it. One can’t fish with this type of knife,” said Judge Fahy, who then imposed a total of seven months detention to be served on lawful termination on the sentence currently being served. Leave to appeal was granted.
