A man who terrorised his partner and broke a window in her apartment, as well as stealing a laptop in an unrelated burglary, was heavily criticised by the judge for his behaviour and will now have to go to the Circuit Court in December to see if a two month suspended jail sentence issued last year will be re-activated.
“Were there children in the house?” asked Judge John Neilan when he heard how defendant Joseph White (30 ), Alverno Drive, Willow Park, Athlone had put a brick through his partner’s window on Castlemain Street in the early hours of September 16.
Though reassured by White’s solicitor, Mr Padraig Quinn, that there were no children in the apartment, Judge Neilan was still unimpressed.
“If you don’t have any respect for females, I certainly will remove you from society,” said the judge.
“If they’re so in fear of you they have to call the Guards, then I’ll show you the inside of the Midlands prison.”
White was in court to plead guilty to two public order offences at his partner’s address on May 17 at 4.45am, one count of burglary after he stole an unrecovered €800 laptop from an address in Willow Park on July 25 and then the criminal damage to the window on September 16..
Mr Quinn told the court that White had already paid €150 towards the €200 worth of damage to the window.
When his previous convictions were read to the court, it was revealed he had one for assault, one for burglary and nine for public order offences.
The most recent of these was in Athlone District Court on September 2, 2008 for which he received a two month sentence, suspended for a year.
As his four offences this summer happened within this period, Judge Neilan ordered White to appear before the Circuit Court when it next sits in Athlone on December 8 where he will face the re-activation of this two month sentence.
