A 20-year-old County Donegal man who downed a bottle of whiskey to drown his sorrows after a break-up with his girlfriend verbally abused a female Garda who went to help him, a court has heard.
Charles Meehan, 20, Carrickballydoey, Manorcunningham, had been lying on a road in Oldtown Letterkenny on June 7th this year when passersby called the emergency services.
Gda Leanne Harraghy attended the scene, as did an ambulance crew.
Inspector David Kelly said Garda Harraghy had asked Meehan to sit down on a wall until an ambulance arrived.
However Meehan told the garda he didn’t want to talk to her because she was a woman.
“The defendant became extremely agitated and made a number of extremely abusive remarks to Garda Harraghy which were anti-women,” said Inspector Kelly.
Meehan became violent, resisted arrest and other officers had to use pepper spray to restrain him.
He had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Garda station.
Solicitor Lisa Finnegan said that Meehan had been drowning his sorrows.
“He had been involved in a relationship and it had broken up and he bought a bottle of whiskey. He is not a regular drinker nor does he go out, but he drank it.
“He has no recollection of what happened after that,” said the solicitor.
She said her client had never been in trouble before and he had apologised to Garda Harraghy as soon as possible afterwards.
Meehan, she said, would like to travel to Canada and was keen to avoid a conviction.
Judge Paul Kelly told the court: It’s bad enough people abusing Gardai but these Gardai were actually on the way to the assistance of Mr Meehan after he was reported to be in an unconscious state – this is the thanks people get for assisting him.
“The Garda was offensively abused on the basis of her gender. The drink involved doesn’t excuse it – nobody forced whiskey into you Mr Meehan. You are here as a result of your own actions.”
Judge Kelly ordered Meehan to pay €250 to Donegal Youth Services and adjourned the case until July 22 to give him time to pay it.