‘Letting you out of jail would make mockery of bail laws’
Judge tells violent reoffender he will not be allowed to attend Christening
A JUDGE has told a violent thug that he will not be letting him out of jail to attend his daughter’s Christening as he has committed ‘an avalanche of crime’.
Declan Sherlock, 23, was told he would not get compassionate bail as it would ‘make a mockery of the bail laws’.
Sherlock has previously carried out 12 offences while out on bail including wielding a machete during the violent car-jacking of a consultant psychiatrist and his pregnant wife.
Judge Gerard Keys said that one of those 12 offences ‘was within 24 hours of securing bail’.
Sherlock has been on remand in jail since December 22 last and was seeking compassionate release for ten hours to attend his daughter’s Christening at Cloughleigh Church in Ennis, Co. Clare, on November 29.
But at Ennis District Court yesterday, Judge Keys told him: ‘I don’t see why extra manpower at the expense of the Garda and the taxpayer should now be introduced to monitor you for the ten hours in relation to you attending your daughter’s Christening.
‘You should have thought of all of this before you started to get involved in an avalanche of crime...
‘You have been trusted before and you have constantly breached it... You have brought all of this on yourself, I am afraid, and because of that there is a price to be paid and I’m sorry you are going to miss your daughter’s Christening.’
The judge added: ‘If you decide to continue to commit crimes, it means you will spend an awful lot of time in jail and you won’t see your daughter at all.’
Sherlock’s six-month-old daughter was born last April while the criminal – who has 36 previous convictions – was on remand in jail pending sentence for three separate sets of offences. One of the offences that occurred while Sherlock was on bail involved him car-jacking a car owned by consultant psychiatrist Dr Narayanan Subramanian and his pregnant wife while wielding a machete in December 2017.
The couple had just returned from a scan from the maternity hospital days before Christmas Day when they were confronted outside their front door by Sherlock armed with a foot-long machete. In his victim impact statement, Dr Subramanian hit out at the operation of the bail laws in the courts.
He said: ‘I cannot understand how a repeat offender like this man would be able to roam freely after a few convictions, pending criminal charges in the courts only to commit more crimes.’
In the incident, Sherlock held the machete up to the stomach of Dr Subramanian. He said Sherlock’s ‘threat to stab, putting the machete on my tummy at my doorstep and threatening to stab my wife and our unborn baby would be hard to forget for us in years to come’.
Sherlock has pleaded guilty to nine separate charges from the incident including hijacking the car, threatening to kill Dr Subramanian on Ennis’s Lahinch Road at the Dromard housing estate, criminal damage, possession of a weapon and dangerous driving.
Opposing Sherlock securing compassionate bail from prison, Garda Bergin said: ‘My concerns are that Declan Sherlock has on numerous occasions not adhered to bail conditions.’
Garda Bergin told the court that the gardaí didn’t believe that any conditions would satisfy the force’s concerns that Sherlock would re-offend while on bail.
Garda Bergin also provided details of the litany offences that Sherlock carried out while on bail and which he has been convicted of. They include a public order offence committed on September 5, 2017, an assault on October 10, 2017 and another public order offence. The previous day on October 9, 2017, Sherlock carried out two thefts.
Sherlock also carried out a theft on October 7, 2017. He was convicted of these offences in the district court on December 13 2017.
On July 30, 2017, Sherlock was found to be driving with no insurance having securing bail on June 21, 2017.
On July 15, 2016, Sherlock got into a car without authority having secured bail on May 27, 2016.
On March 31, 2014, Sherlock trespassed with a weapon after obtaining bail on February 23, 2014.
The other bail breaches took place between November 25, 2013 and March 2014 and the offences while on bail include burglary, possession of knives and other articles.
Judge Keys remanded Sherlock in custody for sentence on the charges relating to Dr Subramanian on January 14 next.