Man who twice lost his temper in Kildare garda station fined €500
Athy courthouse
A MAN who was verbally abusive twice in a garda station after being told to wait in order to ‘sign on’ as a condition of bail was fined a total of €500 last week, even after he had a theft charge struck out.
Cole Walker (26) with an address at Gallow’s Hill, Athy was appearing in his local district court to plead guilty to two counts of threatening and abusive behaviour (section 6 of the ) and to plead not guilty to the theft, which was heard first.
Sergeant Dave Hanrahan explained how Mr Walker had been charged with the theft of a vape device, valued at €8, from Pettit’s Supervalu in the town on 5 February 2024.
“To be fair, it wasn’t really stolen,” said Mr Walker. “I definitely bought two items, or at least I thought I did,” he added.
After noting Mr Walker’s formal reply to the charge on the documents before him, Judge Desmond Zaidan quoted him: “I did not steal any vape” and immediately struck out the theft charge.
Sgt Hanrahan then reminded the judge that Mr Walker still had two public order offences outstanding.
“He was verbally abusive to Garda Phelan at Athy Garda Station when he was there to sign on, and he did this twice,” said Sgt Hanrahan.
Signing on is a process used by the authorities for people on bail or suspended sentences whereby they are obliged to go to their garda station a set number of times a week to sign a book as a way of monitoring people on conditional release.
“There was no evidence of intoxication,” said the sergeant.
“Garda Phelan?” asked the judge.
“He just didn’t want to wait to sign on,” Garda Phelan simply replied.
On conviction, Sgt Hanrahan notified the court that Mr Walker had 44 previous convictions, and one post-conviction for a section 2 assault.
He had also been sentenced to ten months in prison at Carlow Circuit Court for a section 3 assault (causing harm), but this had been suspended.
The judge then fined Mr Walker €250 on each of the two section 6 offences.
