Man told Gardai at checkpoint they would ‘all be getting a shiner’

Man told Gardai at checkpoint they would ‘all be getting a shiner’

A CLONDALKIN man who told gardai they would “all be getting a shiner” after he was arrested for calling them “piggies” has received a one-month suspended sentence.

Daniel O’Flaherty also asked the gardai if getting abuse was not “part of their job” during the incident, Blanchardstown District Court heard.

blanchardstown courthouse

Blanchardstown District Court

Judge Gerard Jones told him to “keep his nose clean” and suspended the sentence for 12 months.

O’Flaherty, aged 21, from Rowlagh Crescent, Clondalkin had pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour, failing to give his details and violent behaviour in a garda station.

The charges are all contrary to the Public Order Act.

Sergeant Maria Callaghan said the incident happened at a checkpoint at Ballyowen Road, Lucan on February 3 this year.

O’Flaherty approached the checkpoint on foot with another male and called the gardai present “piggies, piggies, bastards” numerous times, Sgt Callaghan said.

When the gardai approached him he ran off and when they caught up with him, O’Flaherty continued to be abusive, calling them pigs.

He also said in relation to the abuse: “is it not part of your job, should it not be water off a duck’s back?”

When asked for his details, he gave gardai a false name and address. He was arrested and taken to Ronanstown Garda Station, where he continued to be abusive and when his handcuffs were removed, he told the gardai: “you will all be getting a shiner”.

Solicitor Simon Fleming, defending, said O’Flaherty, a warehouse operative, had a problem with alcohol since he was a teenager. He was addressing this, Mr Fleming said.

At the time of the incident, he was heavily intoxicated. Mr Fleming said his client was not seeking to stand over his comments to the gardai, which he “clearly should not” have made.

The judge said the gardai had “a hard enough job” without having to listen to abuse.

Suspending the sentence for a year, the judge said if the accused kept the peace he had nothing to worry about.

Before leaving court, O’Flaherty, who was accompanied to court by his father, signed a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a year.

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