A man who abused gardai when they arrived at his house to sort out a domestic row was fined €500 at Galway District Court recently.
Patrick Ward (22 ) with an address at 140 Gleann Dara, Rahoon, appeared in court last Monday charged with refusing to obey Garda Daragh Ainsworth who ordered him to leave the area after public order breaches. Ward was also charged with threatening and abusive behaviour.
The court heard that on December 13, 2008, at 4.25am gardai received a call of a domestic disturbance at 140 Gleann Dara. When they arrived they found that the defendant had been abusive to people on the street and when requested to leave the area Ward refused.
Defence solicitor Sean Acton said that his client does have a previous conviction for theft for which he received a four month sentence in February but that there was none for public order. He said that Ward, who has two children, was at his home when he had a row with his wife which had started over his drinking. The defendant became abusive to gardai when “they came to sort it out”. Mr Acton added that Ward is very apologetic about his behaviour.
“That’s no way to behave when there are young children in your care,” Judge Fahy told the defendant. She then convicted and fined him a total of €500 with three months to pay.
