9 MONTHS PRISON SENTENCE FOR THREATENING TO BLOW UP GALWAY GARDAI

Date Published: 08-Sep-2009

A 46 year-old man has been sentenced to nine months in prison for a spate of criminal damage and public order offences, which included a threat to blow up Galway Gardaí.Limerick native Christy McCarthy, formerly of Cobh, County Cork and more recently of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty before Galway District Court to ripping wires from the controls of a boat moored at Galway docks in JuneThe court heard Christy McCarthy went into the public office at the Garda Station on June 25th and started roaring and shouting at people.When Garda Aidan Quinn told him to leave, McCarthy threatened to blow the place up and have every garda killed. He violently resisted arrest and it took a number of Gardai to place him in a cell.Defence solicitor, Ian Foley explained McCarthy suffered from schizophrenia and a bipolar disorder. Inspector Pat McHugh said McCarthy had 21 previous convictions including one for manslaughter for which he had received a 10-year sentence with two and a half years suspended in Cork in 2002.Judge Fahy sentenced him to a total of nine months in prison on all charges and backdated the sentence to July the 1st.