Armed Gardai called to public order arrest
Gardai who arrested a Dundalk man who admitted a number of public order offences had to get assistance from armed colleagues in the Regional Support Unit to detain him during one of the incidents, the district court heard last week.
Aaron Grimes, (28), 51 Grange Drive, Muirhevnamor, was seen by Gardai on the Castletown Road shortly before 3am on March 18. There was a disturbance at the nearby Patrick Tierney Crescent where he was ‘ highly intoxicated, shouting at people and he told Gardai to f **k off ’. The RSU came to their colleagues’ aid as Grimes was resisting arrest.
Four days earlier, Grimes had been spotted on a footpath at Seatown around 1am. He was ‘ highly intoxicated’ and when Gardai got out of the patrol car to ask if he was OK, he told them to f **k off and ran away towards oncoming traffic even though he was unable to stand up.
And on November 23, Grimes was spotted by Gardai when he was involved in a dispute at Francis Street. He was ‘ highly intoxicated and was aggressive when Gardai spoke to him’.
He has 44 previous convictions, including for public order and previously received a jail sentence for public order offences. Solicitor Peter Lavery said his client had given up drinking since the incident on March 18. He had been employed for the last nine months, working in a factory, but ‘is now unemployed and seeking work again’.
Mr Lavery said: ‘ These incidents are unacceptable and they shouldn’t have occurred. He us trying to do his best. He apologises to the court for what he has done and has recently completed community service’.
Judge William Hamill noted that Grimes had committed these crime while on community service. Mr Lavery said the offences were as a result of the defendant’s drinking and he is off the drink now. He said there has been ‘significant improvement’ in Grimes in recent times and asked the judge to consider adjourning the cases so Grimes’s behaviour could be monitored by the court and he could prove that he is turning his life around.
But the judge repeated that the defendant had committed offences while doing community service and he didn’t ‘see any point’ in giving him more. He imposed a three month jail term, but allowed Grimes to appeal in his own bond of €500 with an independent or cash surety of €500, which was lodged later in the day.