Man jailed for five months after Tesco assault

AFTER hearing that drink will put a 49-year-old man before him in an early grave, Judge Coughlan said, ‘I will tell you where it will put him, in Mountjoy.’

He sentenced John Gerard McDonagh, 6 Paradise Place, Drogheda, to five months for assaulting a security guard in a supermarket, where staff had refused to sell alcohol to the defendant.

This incident occurred in Tesco, West Street, on 27 January, 2017. He punched the security man in the mouth.

McDonagh was discovered intoxicated by gardaí, later the same day, and at the garda station, refused to provide a sample.

For that offence he was disqualified from driving for four years, and for having no insurance, received a concurrent ten-year disqualification.

At 5.30pm, on 6 November, 2017, officers were called to St. Laurence’s Drive, where the accused was verbally abusing family members.

He refused a direction to desist.

McDonagh has 135 previous convictions, all drink related, added his solicitor Dermot Monahan.

Mr. Monahan continued his client is from the travelling community, and a total pest with drink.