A Ballina man was before court for being threatening and abusive following an incident where a garda intervened when he observed the man strike a woman—who was the defendant’s girlfriend.
Inspector Joe Doherty outlined that on July 25, Detective Garda Heaney observed a couple have a dispute in a public place and later observed Michael Reape, 2 Chapel Court, Abbey Street, Ballina, strike the woman. The injured party fell to the ground. Det Heaney assisted the woman and was then set upon by Reape, who pushed the garda back and said he would not tell him what to do. No statement of complaint was made by the injured party.
Denis Molloy, solicitor for the defendant, said that Reape and his girlfriend had been at a BBQ that day, where alcohol was consumed. Mr Molloy said his client and girlfriend denied that any assault of her took place and that the detective had just misunderstood the situation. In fact, the woman had stood on broken glass at the party and the defendant had tried to hold her up on the journey home but she fell. Reape did admit that “he lost his cool” when Det Heaney intervened.
For being threatening and abusive, the unemployed man, who has previous convictions, was convicted and fined €500 by Judge Mary Devins and sentenced to three months in prison; suspended for 12 months.
