This article is from page 16 of the 2009-04-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
A MAN behaved like ‘a madman with a knife’ during an early morn- ing incident at a house in Ennis town, after enormous amounts of alcohol had been consumed.
JJ O’Brien (22), with addresses at Main Street, Kilteely, Limerick and Grange, Kilmallock, Limerick, and Darren O’Grady (23), of Fahy’s Lane, Ennis, were charged arising out of the incident.
O’Brien faced a number of charges, while O’Grady was charged with possession of an iron bar.
Garda Shane O’Connell told En- nis Circuit Court yesterday that a number of people congregated in a house at Station Court in the town in the early hours of June 9, 2006.
Among them were the accused men, who were invited to the house after a night out.
He said that a lot of alcohol had been consumed by everybody and the drinking continued at the house.
He said that while they were there, Ian Hassett, who was a tenant at the house, was concerned that Darren O’Grady was going to wreck the property. He then asked both accused to leave. He said that they left, but Mr Hassett saw them at the back of the house a few minutes later, fight- ing with another man.
O’Grady had what appeared to be an iron bar. The fight was broken up, but then, “all of a sudden, JJ O’Brien pulled a knife on Mr Hassett.”
He said the knife was a 12-inch bread knife with a jagged edge. Gda
O’Connell said O’Brien put the knife to Mr Hassett’s neck and told him he would cut his throat. He said that Mr Hassett grabbed the knife and as he did so, it ripped backwards and cut his finger. O’Brien again swung the knife at Mr Hassett.
“Mr Hassett said JJ O’Brien was acting like a madman with the knife,” said the garda. The two accused men fled the scene on foot. He said that O’Brien threw the knife away and it was never recovered.
The court heard that both men have several previous convictions.
O’Brien’s barrister, Brian MclIner- ney, BL, said his client had consumed an enormous amount of alcohol on the night in question.
He said the accused was taken into care when he was young and ap-
peared to have “gone off the rails over a relatively short period of time, but has emerged from that fog. He’s off the radar.”
He said he had been addicted to drugs at one stage but was not abus- ing them any longer.
Mark Nicholas, BL, for O’Grady, said his client’s father died when he was young and he had been taken into care for a period of time. He said he had fallen into bad company in his teenage years and has struggled with orabteace
Judge Carroll Moran said that while the matter would normally merit a “lengthy prison sentence,” he was prepared to review that after hearing that both men had “turned their lives around.”
He remarked that garda evidence
was “‘very fair” in relation to O’Brien who had undergone a course of treat- ment for his addiction and was, ac- cording to the evidence of an after- care worker with the Health Service Executive, “unrecognisable” as the man who had been abusing drink, drugs and getting involved with criminality.
Similarly, O’Grady had “pleaded, changed his life and co-operated.”
Judge Moran imposed three-year suspended sentences on all four counts against O’Brien, each sus- pended for three years, on condition he commit no crime and continue under the direction of the probation Service.
The judge imposed a two-year sen- tence, suspended for three years, on O’Grady on the same conditions.