Man arrived at house in Offaly with baseball bat 'to save his children'
A MAN arrived at a house armed with a baseball bat because he had been told his teenage children were under attack by people wearing balaclavas.
Tullamore District Court heard the background to the event at Tara Crescent in the town was a drug debt.
Paul Mulpeter (45), Ballykean, Geashill, pleaded guilty to possession of a baseball bat at Tara Crescent on September 2 last year.
Separately, he admitted to being drunk in public and a breach of the peace at Church Road, Tullamore on October 4 last.
Judge Andrew Cody was told by Sergeant James O'Sullivan that at 11.15pm on September 2, 2021 Garda Rory Heffernan was in Tara Crescent investigating a criminal damage incident.
Mr Mulpeter arrived at the scene in an intoxicated state in possession of a metal baseball bat and he was asked a number of times to drop it but he refused and he was arrested.
Sergeant O'Sullivan said the offence on October 4 occurred after gardai received a number of reports of a highly intoxicated male falling out in front of traffic at Church Road at 6.10pm.
When gardai arrived Mr Mulpeter told them to “f... off” on a number of occasions and was arrested for his own safety.
He had 24 previous convictions, mainly for public order offences, added the sergeant, the most recent of which was breach of the peace and public drunkenness on March, 2021.
He received the Probation Act for that and the court order was the same in February 2020 when he was also prosecuted for a public order offence.
In October 2019 he had been fined for public drunkenness and in 2016 he had been disqualified for driving without insurance.
Defending solicitor Donal Farrelly said the circumstances surrounding the incident in Tara Crescent were “unusual”.
His client, a father of three, was living away from the family home at the time and his 17-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter were there when it was attacked by a number of individuals wearing balaclavas.
The children were locked into a room and sought garda assistance and they believed they were in danger from people who had come to collect drug money because of unfortunate involvement in the drug industry.
Mr Farrelly said Mr Mulpeter armed himself with a bat because he did not know what he was going to be in contact with when he was told about “three or four individuals wearing balaclavas who were about to attack his children”.
When he got there he found that the gardai had attended and dealt with the situation and he was aggravated and upset and annoyed.
“He was trying to help and save his children,” said the solicitor. It was not usual for him to be involved in anything of that nature and Mr Farrelly asked Judge Cody to see it as an exception.
Sergeant O'Sullivan said Mr Mulpeter had been asked three times to put the bat down. The gardai were in the area investigating another matter in relation to an arson attack on a van.
Requesting leniency from Judge Cody, Mr Farrelly said his client had a serious alcohol problem and in an attempt to deal with it he had got an appointment for treatment.
Commenting on the other offence, Judge Cody said the court appearance seemed to be an “annual visit” in relation to public order offences.
He fined him €50 for each of the two offences before him on this occasion. For possession of the baseball bat he imposed a three-month prison sentence but suspended it for two years on Mr Mulpeter's own bond of €100.