A Mullingar man has admitted a “technical” breach of a barring order at the recent sitting of Mullingar District Court.
Desmond Farrell of 13 Grange Lawns was given a three month suspended sentence by Judge Aeneas McCarthy who wanted to know why the 41-year-old shouldn’t go to jail for breaching a court order.
Inspector Aidan Minnock described how at 2pm on October 20 this year, the woman who had taken out the barring order said Farrell had “abused her on Pearse Street and put her in fear”.
Mr Redmond O’Regan however said his client was trying to get property belonging to other people which he’d left at what had been their premises.
The woman who was in court answered the judge’s question about whether this was the case by saying “I don’t know, he was shouting and roaring at me”.
Mr O’Regan said his client accepted there was a barring order in place and he shouldn’t have approached her. However he had done this only because of his anxiety to get the property back.
Farrell has a number of previous public order convictions.
Mr O’Regan admitted when questioned by the judge that there was “no good reason” why his client shouldn’t go to jail for the offence, but said his actions had been misguided rather than deliberate.
He’d been working hard to sort out his life and made the mistake of trying to deal with the situation himself rather than coming to his solicitors to get them to act for him.
The judge suspended the three month sentence on condition he be of good behaviour.
