Jail sentence for 'dirty protest' in Galway Garda Station
A man who claims a judge once called him a celebrity, smeared his own excrement over the walls of a cell at Mill Street Station after assaulting a Garda twice earlier that night.
49-year-old John Tomkins, of 136 Leargan, Knocknacarra will spend the next eight months in prison.
Tomkins asked Judge Mary Fahy to recuse herself from hearing the case against him at Galway District Court last week, claiming she would be biased against him.
“We have history going back a long time and I don’t feel I would get a fair hearing. I made comments to you in the past and you’d hold it against me,” Tomkins said.
Tomkins claimed the judge had once described him as a ‘celebrity’ and on another occasion called him ‘disgusting’ before admitting he had called her names too.
Refusing his request, Judge Fahy assured Tomkins that after 27 years “in the job”, she didn’t take things like that seriously.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re biased against me. I walked into court years ago and you said ‘Here comes the celebrity’,” Tomkins claimed.
Judge Fahy said she had never called him a celebrity.
“He suffers from delusions if he thinks people are calling him a celebrity,” Judge Fahy said to Tomkins’ solicitor, Gearóid Geraghty.
Tomkins was before the court, charged with assaulting Garda Ciaran O’Malley at Lombard Street, on June 28 last year.
He was also charged with resisting arrest at Lombard Street and with assaulting Garda O’Malley again while under arrest at Galway Garda Station.
He was further charged with causing criminal damage to a cell at the Garda Station by smearing his own excrement all over the walls while being detained. He denied all of the charges.
Five Gardaí who witnessed Hopkins’ behaviour on the night were present in court to give evidence in the contested hearing.
Garda O’Malley said he was on foot patrol at 6.45pm on the evening in question when he saw Tomkins, whom he knew, drinking outside St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church. He said Tomkins became very aggressive when he approached him and directed him to pick up his rubbish and leave the area.
Tomkins refused and suddenly grabbed Garda O’Malley by the throat when he went to arrest him.
He ripped off the Garda’s tie in the ensuing struggle and both ended up on the ground where Tomkins managed to kick the Garda in the side of the head. A female Garda, who was present at the time, managed to subdue Tomkins with pepper spray. He remained aggressive on the way to the Garda station and again managed to assault Garda O’Malley by kicking him and punching him into the chest while he was being searched at the station.
During cross-examination, Mr Geraghty put it to Garda O’Malley that his client told him the Garda had been aggressive towards him.
“He said that you attacked him – those are my instructions you understand,” Mr Geraghty put to Garda O’Malley.
“He has the Garda Ombudsman to go to if he wants to make a complaint about me, but he hasn’t done so. My actions are beyond reproach,” Garda O’Malley said.
Tomkins poked Mr Geraghty in the back and following a brief consultation with the accused, Mr Geraghty informed the court that Tomkins wished to change his plea to guilty.
Inspector Des Beirne, prosecuting, then told the court that Tomkins was placed in a cell that night and when someone went to check on him, they found he had smeared excrement all over the walls of the cell.
The cell had to be deep cleaned at a cost of €486 and was “out of action” for 24 hours, the inspector said. There are toilets in each cell, he added.
Asking for leniency, Mr Geraghty said his client had spent a large portion of his adult life in prison and was the sole carer for his 80-year-old mother.
Judge Fahy said it must have been a very frightening experience for Garda O’Malley when his tie was pulled tight around his neck in the struggle and she asked him how was he doing now.
He assured her he was fine.
Insp Beirne confirmed Tomkins had 41 previous convictions for assaults, burglaries, obstruction of Gardai, thefts and Public Order offences going back many years.
Judge Fahy said the criminal damage to the Garda cell was a particularly nasty thing to do.
“I can’t comment for obvious reasons. It is what it is,” Mr Geraghty agreed.
Taking the last-minute plea into account, Judge Fahy sentenced Tomkins to five months in prison for the first assault on Garda O’Malley and imposed a consecutive three-month sentence for damaging the cell. She imposed a concurrent three-month sentence for the second assault and granted leave to appeal the sentences.