A council worker was forced to barricade himself into his own sitting room to fend off an attack by a drunken and agressive work colleague who took offence to alleged remarks, the Galway District Court heard this week.
At the court sitting on Monday John Bailey (41 ) with an address at Longford Hill, Mountbellew, Co Galway, changed his plea to guilty to entering a building with intent to commit serious assault on March 22, 2011, at a house at Bowling Green.
The court heard that Bailey had arrived at the injured party’s house and started shouting and kicking the front door. Bailey eventually gained entry to the house forcing the occupier to lock himself into his sitting room in an effort to prevent Bailey from getting to him. Detective Garda Noel Sweeney gave evidence that as the injured party sought refuge in the sitting room Bailey banged and kicked at the door and had shouted a number of threats. Such was the damage to the sitting room door that Det Garda Sweeney had to break it completely down to be able to get the injured party out.
Defence solicitor Valerie Corcoran said that both parties had been working for the same local authority and relationships had deteriorated over the past five years, with a number of “verbal issues between them”, culminating in a remark made about a family member. Ms Corcoran said that this comment had caused great upset to Bailey and that on the night of the offence he had been drinking and lost control. She added that because of the incident Bailey, who is the sole guardian of two daughters, had been suspended from work but has since been reinstated. The court then heard that Bailey had €250 in court to offer for the damage caused to the door; this was later handed over to the injured party
The injured party then told Judge Mary Fahy that he was forced to lock himself in the sitting room as he was in fear of what Bailey would do. He added that he had had no issues with Bailey and that he has been threatened several times. “He picked on me for no reason,” he said.
Inspector Sean Glynn outlined the previous convictions which include a fine for assault in July 2010 and criminal damage in March 2006.
“He has a poor record... they need to both move on with their lives,” said Judge Fahy before imposing eight months jail suspended for two years on condition that Bailey enter into a bond of €500 to be of good behaviour and stay away from the injured party, his home and family, and have no contact whatsoever with him by any means by himself or any other party with the exception of completing his work role.
