Man who spat at gardaí gets five months

SPITTING at gardaí earned Thomas Nolan of no fixed abode a five-month jail sentence for assault when he appeared before Wexford District Court.

Nolan repeatedly told the officers who arrested him on the date in question in March that he had symptoms of the Covid-19 virus.

The five months imposed for the assaults on Detective Garda Darren Coleman and Garda Patrick Malone was extended to 17 months as convictions for theft and motoring offences were added.

When the case was called, Garda Coleman entered the witness box to recall the events of March 19 when he arrested the defendant at Dunnes Stores in Gorey.

Nolan, who was put into the cell of a garda van, said he had coronavirus symptoms and that he would spit at the witness.

On arrival at the barracks in Wexford, Garda Coleman recalled, the accused refused to come out of the cell.

He was eventually carried from the van and into the station after Garda Coleman and his colleague Patrick Malone donned personal protective suits.

Evidence was given that transferring him from the van and into the station was accomplished with some difficulty.

At one stage, all three men were on the ground, with Nolan spitting and attempting to bite his escorts.

The detective told how, in order to stave off the spit, the prisoner’s jumper was pulled over his head.

In his evidence, Garda Malone confirmed that the arrested man was coughing that evening, without covering his mouth.

Nolan told the gardaí that he had been attending the doctor at the shopping centre in Gorey to take a Covid-19 test.

The prisoner was later examined in the station by Doctor Stephen Bowe who noted that his temperature was normal, though he was sneezing and there was a discharge from his nose.

When the defendant gave his version of events, he admitted having been aggressive and abusive but he denied spitting or attempting to bite anyone.

However, Judge Brian O’Shea did not believe him and he moved to record convictions against a repeat offender who already had more than 160 convictions on his record.

The tally included 21 counts of driving without insurance. The 17-month sentence imposed on this occasion comprised an accumulation of terms for driving without insurance (two consecutive terms of four months each), theft (four months consecutive) and assaulting gardaí (two terms of five months each, the second marked concurrent).