So that’s why they call it a runway... passenger held over airport dash
Charged with criminal damage
FRIENDS of a man who was arrested after he ran onto the tarmac at Dublin Airport after missing his flight are said to be ‘very embarrassed’ by the situation.
Patrick Kehoe is alleged to have run through a door at a boarding gate in Dublin Airport yesterday morning and to have attempted to flag down the flight he was meant to be flying on to Amsterdam.
He has been charged with criminal damage.
A video later surfaced online apparently showing Ryanair and airport staff attempting to restrain the 23-year-old. He was later brought to Ballymun Garda station where he was charged, before being brought to appear before Judge Bernadette Owens at Dublin District Court.
Kehoe, from Raheenaskeagh, Oulart, Co. Wexford, was granted bail and ran past news photographers and then dropped his trousers and ‘mooned’ at them after he was let out on bail by Dublin District Court.
Sources close to Kehoe’s family yesterday said the first they had learned of the incident was on the phone, and they had not been in contact with the young man.
‘We think he was off on holiday to Amsterdam with his girlfriend. He doesn’t live at home but has been living in town so the family wouldn’t have much to do with him. It’s a very unfortunate situation, he has got himself into, but it’s best he sorts it out himself now. We are just embar- rassed by it all,’ a friend said. Kehoe is accused of criminal damage to a magnetic door lock at Gate 106 at Dublin Airport. Dressed in a grey padded jacket, grey tracksuit bottoms and runners, the unemployed man grinned awkwardly as he stood before the judge who asked him if he had a solicitor, to which he replied: ‘No.’ He gave the same answer when the judge asked him if he was working and if he had the name of a solicitor.
‘I don’t know any of them, do you want to choose me one?’ he said. The judge said she could and she assigned solicitor Peter Connolly to act for the accused.
Garda David Cahill told the court he arrested Mr Kehoe at Dublin Airport at 7.50am and brought him to Ballymun station. ‘He made no reply to the charge after caution,’ Garda Cahill said.
Garda Cahill said he did not have directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) yet and he sought a six-week adjournment.
There were no objections to bail but Garda Cahill sought a bail condition banning the accused from Dublin Airport unless he had ‘legitimate business’ there.
However, this was successfully resisted by Mr Connolly who objected to this condition. Garda Cahill said it was possible that there would be ‘further charges’.
Mr Kehoe has not yet indicated how he will plead.
Judge Bernadette Owens did not ban him from the airport but imposed the statutory bail terms, to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. Legal aid was granted after Mr Connolly furnished the court with a statement of his client’s means. He was released on his own bond of €200 and ordered to appear again on November 8 next. Mr Kehoe, with his luggage in tow, left the court with a woman shortly after the hearing.
Mr Kehoe had not returned to the family home in Co. Wexford last night when the Irish Daily Mail visited.