“Were you ever in prison? Would you like to go?” Judge John Neilan asked Enda Devanney of Rathconnell, Mullingar when he heard his response to gardaí when charged with public order offences.
Mr Devanney told the garda, “You have little to do. Go after the knackers and scumbags. Pricks you are.”
“You can say that to the prison officers in Cloverhill,” said the judge to Mr Devanney who was hoping that the court would reinstate bail for him.
Ms Patricia Cronin said that no charges had been made against her client regarding the breach of bail which allegedly occurred on November 9, but Judge Neilan said that he had heard evidence that bail had been clearly breached and the conditions treated with contempt.
During the hearing, Judge Neilan said he was not happy with Mr Devanney’s “unacceptable” demeanour and disposition which he described as “cavalier – like Robert Mitchum the night he was on the Parkinson show.”
Mr Devanney is to appear before the court again on December 11 and he was warned by the judge that he may consider himself a tough man, born in 1987, but he had seen boys recently in floods of tears, shaking from their experience at St Pat’s Institution.
“If you think you’re tough you’ll see guys up there who will find you and lose you with both eyes closed.”
