A former local election candidate charged with threatening two gardaí, alleged in court this week (October 12 ) that pertinent CCTV footage “may have been tampered with”, then dispensed with his solicitor, and was told to return to court in seven days “with a better solicitor than yourself” or else the judge would finalise the case the following week.
In court was Donie Kenny (62 ), of Clonbonny, Athlone who was pleading not guilty to the charge that, at 3am on June 19 on Church Street, Athlone, he approached a patrol car in which there were two gardaí and “made threatening remarks”, according to Inspector Aidan Minnock.
Solicitor Padraig Quinn told Judge Seamus Hughes that he was no longer representing Kenny, and said that even though he received the relevant CCTV footage from the night in question, systems difficulties meant he was only able to view it on the Garda station’s equipment on Monday.
Kenny acknowledged to Judge Hughes that Mr Quinn was no longer representing him but that he had not yet decided on a replacement. He suggested he was unhappy with the presentation of this evidence and alleged “the CCTV footage may have been tampered with”.
“If you’re not in here next week [October 19] with a better solicitor than yourself, I will expedite your trial the following week,” warned Judge Hughes.
Kenny stood as a non-party candidate in the Athlone Town Council election in June 2009, coming third last out of 17 candidates with 120 first preference votes.
