MAN ‘TIRED OF HIDING FROM THE GARDAI’

A Dundalk man who served a sentence in the North ‘is tired of hiding from Gardai’ the district court heard last week after he pleaded guilty to a number of offences that date back some years.

Stephen Kenneway, (36), whose address was given as care of the Simon Community, Barrack Street, admitted charges including theft from the Car Phone Warehouse, Clanbrassil Street on August 1 2013.

Solicitor Peter Lavery said his client had spent time in custody in the North, serving a sentence for assault and was released last summer. The cases came back into the courts sys- tem in Dundalk and a bench warrant was issued for him. He had previously been deemed fit for community service, but was in jail.

Judge Flann Brennan said that was ‘not the best excuse I’ve ever heard for not doing community service’ and Mr Lavery said his client, ‘is a different sort of man now’. Kenneway is now off drugs and ‘is doing much better’. He’s almost a year without reoffending and had battled a heroin addiction.

Kenneway has been in custody for the last two weeks in the drug free section of the prison and is willing to do community service through he ‘previously didn’t take the chance’.

Kenneway, Mr Lavery said, is enjoying a good relationship with his son and all the defendant’s problems ‘ stem from drugs’. While Kenneway is still on methadone, he’s doing very well and has been back in Dundalk for nearly a year without reoffending, which, the solicitor said ‘is a positive thing for him’.

He surrendered himself to Gardai when a bench warrant was issued for him and said ‘ he was tired of hiding from the Gardai and wants to get on with things’. He was released on bail for assessment for community service and the case was adjourned to September 28.