Five months’ jail for breach of barring order

Max Keith (32), formerly of 7 Brendan Corish Gardens, Wexford, was given a five-month sentence for infringing the barring order taken out by his ex-partner to keep him away from the house.

The District Court heard Keith, a qualified scaffolder, state that he went to the home of Karen Lawlor after drinking pints and spirits at a night club in the town.

His version of events on the night in question was that he threw money in through the window of the house before he was arrested by gardaí in a nearby rear garden.

Ms Lawlor’s account, which the court accepted, was very different, telling how the defendant arrived shouting and screaming, though there were a two-year-old and a baby in the house.

She insisted that he had no money with him that night, adding that she had been tortured and abused during the seven years that they were a couple.

Solicitor Nigel Allen pointed out that his client had already spent 29 days in Cloverhill Prison on remand while waiting for the case to come to court.

Judge Gerard Haughton responded that Keith had been drunk and aggressive, adding that the court had a duty to back up barring orders with firm rulings against those who breached them.

The judge felt that the accused man had attempted to lie his way out of the consequences