A Connemara man who allegedly made 1,400 menacing and abusive phone calls to a number of health care workers and rape crisis centres has been remanded in custody for the purpose of being assessed by the Central Mental Hospital as soon as possible.
The 25-year-old pleaded with the investigating garda to be placed in custody rather than being given continuing bail as he feared he would harm himself and wanted “immediate” psychiatric help.
Inspector Ernie White told Galway District Court last Monday that in addition to older charges, in which there were approximately 1,400 calls made, there were now allegedly five more complainants regarding the same issue; one complainant is the Rape Crisis Centre in Dublin.
Padraig Conroy, with an address at Lehenagh, Cashel, Connemara, had appeared in court in late January of this year where he was ordered to refrain from making further indecent, obscene or menacing phone calls or messages after nine complaints were received from health care workers. The calls were made between December 2007 and October 2008 to health care workers in Galway, Dublin, and Kildare. Conroy had already been on bail at the time for making similar menacing calls or threats to staff at the Galway Rape Crisis Centre. The court heard last December how the defendant had threatened to break every window at the centre and burn it down. The matter was adjourned for the preparation of a psychiatric report.
However, defence solicitor Susan McLoughlin told the court this week that a psychiatric report was not available.
Despite having accepted jurisdiction in the matter previously, Judge Fahy called for all the charges to be sent back to the DPP for directions as the case was now “way too serious”. She also considered remanding the defendant on continuing bail as gardai expressed reservations over remanding him in custody due to his mental condition.
When asked if Conroy’s phone should be confiscated, the investigating detective said that it would make little difference as a number of calls had been made from phone boxes in the Mayo area in the last week. After a short adjournment, the investigating detective said that he had been approached by Conroy who was anxious to get “immediate help” as he had tried to harm himself. Conroy was then remanded in custody by consent to Castlerea Prison with the recommendation that he be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital for treatment at the earliest possible date. The case is due back before the court on March 23.
