Judge Mary Devins told a couple, “I think the two of you are a disgrace, you have no respect for anything or anybody. You are both a complete and utter disgrace,” after a man pleaded guilty to attacking an ambulance and one of its personnel.
Paddy McDonnagh, 37 Clareville, Claremorris, pleaded guilty in court to causing criminal damage to an ambulance, causing €392.20 of damage, and to assaulting one of the ambulance crew. The court was told that on August 5 2009 at 12.05am, the emergency services got a call to help a pregnant woman. When paramedics arrived at the scene they found a couple arguing in the driveway of the house. Mr McDonnagh was very agitated and at one stage threw a bucket of blue paint at the house, getting himself covered in the paint also. The ambulance crew felt threatened and retreated to their vehicle, then McDonnagh ran at the ambulance and threw a kick at it, he then jumped up on the side of the ambulance and ripped the wing mirror off. McDonnagh then threw a kick in the open window of the ambulance, catching one of the crew on the arm. McDonnagh’s wife Mary McDonnagh was the one who called the ambulance on the night in question. The court was told that during the incident when her husband was attacking the ambulance she took off in a car with another woman, and that the ambulance crew and the gardaí had to track her down later that night at her parents’ home to make sure she was all right.
The ambulance crew met a Garda car on the way out of the estate. The gardaí were responding to a call about the fighting outside the house and they arrested McDonnagh. Solicitor for McDonnagh, Cathy McDarby, told the court that what her client had done was “a despicable act”. Ms McDarby also told the court that her client had €1,000 in court as compensation for the incident. Judge Devins directed that he pay €392.20 to the HSE for the damage caused and the rest to the ambulance driver who was assaulted in the incident. She adjourned sentencing on the matter until November 16 to see if McDonnagh was suitable for community service.
