A Donegal man, who jumped on to the bonnet of a Garda patrol car causing €500 worth of damage, said that his stag do mates had dared him to do it, the Galway District Court heard this week.
Kenneth Orr (28 ) with an address at Ballyare, Ramelton, Letterkenny, Donegal, pleaded guilty last Monday to criminal damage to a Garda patrol car at Eyre Square on September 20, 2008.
Inspector Mick Coppinger told the court that at 2.55am Garda Gerard Morrissey was on duty in Eyre Square monitoring the crowd at Supermac’s when suddenly the defendant “ran out of the crowd” and “jumped on the bonnet” of the patrol car, causing €500 worth of damage. He added that the defendant had no previous convictions and that compensation had been paid.
Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn told Judge Mary Fahy that his client had been in Galway for a stag night. The court heard that Orr had been with friends who asked him if he would attempt to jump over the car. Mr MacLynn said that Orr had done this “for a bet” but that he didn’t actually manage to clear the car and certainly didn’t “deliberately set out” to damage it. “It was tomfoolery on his part,” said Mr MacLynn, who added that Orr had once worked in construction but was now unemployed.
Judge Fahy replied that the defendant was 28 years old and not some teenager who didn’t know any better. She said that if the defendant had had a previous conviction he would be looking at a custodial sentence.
“This will not be tolerated by the court. The patrol car was there trying to protect people and control Eyre Square,” she said.
“I regret it. It was very silly,” said Orr.
“That’s an understatement,” replied Judge Fahy.
Orr then explained that he had stopped working in September and that he was not eligible for employment as he had a minor brain seizure.
“This type of behaviour is no benefit to your health,” said Judge Fahy who then convicted and fined the defendant €500 with three months to pay.
