Longford man who repeatedly headbutted garda van door hit with €800 of fines

Ciaran O'Reilly (22) of 1 Abbey Court, Abbeylara, Longford was before Judge Bernadette Owens in relation to three separate incidents.

The defendant was charged with public intoxication and engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour at Market Street, Granard on February 18, 2023, non-display of an insurance disk, non-display of L plates and driving unaccompanied by a full licence holder on May 8, 22 at Abbeylara, Longford, and driving while under the influence of cannabis at Rathcroghan, Granard on April 18, 2022.

Inspector David Jordan outlined details of the charges before the court. On Saturday, February 18 at 2:15am officers attending to a disturbance at a licence premises found the defendant ‘intoxicated and aggressive’.

When the officers asked Mr O'Reilly to leave the area he responded, calling them “f**king c**ts”. He was “shouting and aggressive” and was arrested. As he was being placed in the Garda van he repeatedly headbutted the door. Inspector Jordan said the defendant calmed down when he was in the Garda cell.

Solicitor, Frank Gearty, told the judge a wedding had taken place earlier in the day. Mr O'Reilly's partner's sister was getting married: “There was too much celebration, he was completely out of order as he had too much to drink. It was an unfortunate end to a lovely day.”

Garda Shane Carr gave details of stopping the defendant who was driving a silver Volkswagen at 1:25pm on May 8, 2022 at Abbeylara, Longford. An examination of the vehicle showed that the tax disk had expired, there were no L plates on display and the driver was an unaccompanied learner driver. A fixed charge penalty notice was issued, but went unpaid.

The court was told the defendant has six previous convictions including a no insurance charge from 2020.

Judge Owens noted the father of two had “clocked up a serious number of convictions” in a short period of time. Mr Gearty said the defendant had a consequential disqualification because of the number of penalty points he has accrued. The defendant has 20 hours of community service left to complete on a previous community service order.

Judge Owens imposed a fine of €300 for the threatening and abusive charge, and took the public intoxication charge into account for the offences on February 18 last.

Fines of €250 for non-display of insurance, and €250 for unaccompanied driving were also imposed on the May 8 offences, with the non-display of the L plates was taken into consideration.

The charge of driving under the influence of cannabis at Rathcroghan, Granard on March 18, 2022 was adjourned to April 18 next to allow the prosecution make disclosure of evidence in the case to the defendant's legal representative.