This article is from page 3 of the 2009-04-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
aE Kom or-Du eter Mm nares since the start of the year, five people have been arrested in the town, on suspicion of the possession of a knife or implement.
Superintendent John Scanlan said gardai are “taking a very strong view in relation to people caught carrying knives.
He said that while gardai have not encountered many such incidents, nevertheless they treat any case they come across very seriously.
“Young people should not be carry- ing knives for whatever reason what- soever. People inadvertently have knives for innocent reasons like work but they should not find their way into a social circle,’ said Supt Scanlan.
“Vd hope that people would not get into a situation where they have knives at their disposal. It is a crimi- nal offence to carry a knife or weap- on of any description without lawful ep. CON oma OLomnsy2 BLOM
‘They need to be left at home. We are going to take a very strong line on people carrying weapons in pub- lic places,” he said.
Speaking after John McGovern was jailed for six years last week for the manslaughter of 14-year-old Mr Doherty, the victim’s uncle Tom Sherlock said there was “no need for” knife crime.
“The only thing we hope would come from this is that no-one goes around the streets carrying a knife. There’s no need for it. Life is too pre- cious,’ said Mr Sherlock.
As he handed down the sentence,
the trial judge Mr Justice Paul Car- ney said that it was the experience of his court that those who carried knives ended up using them, with fa- tal consequences.
‘Possession of the knife in this case was not sinister in itself. It was a gift from his grandparents, which would have been useful on a farm, and which had been used innocently earlier to open bottles,” he said.
However, he said there was delib- eration, however brief, in McGovern taking it out of his pocket, open- ing it and using it to inflict the fatal ZO) UN NTC E