Man in custody ‘disappears’ from courtroom

HE was supposed to be custody but no one seems to know where he went after he apparently turned up on his own at Sligo District Court last Thursday.

The court records showed that John Kelleher (54) had been remanded in custody to appear at Sligo District Court last Thursday after he appeared on a charge of breaking windows at Sligo University Hospital at the previous week’s sitting of Harristown District Court in Castlerea.

He was remanded in custody after he refused to sign a bail bond.

However, when the case was called last Thursday confusion reigned when solicitor Ms Laura Spellman said she had been speaking with him earlier but he was no longer in the courtroom.

A prison officer from Castlerea who was there with other prisoners came forward and said they hadn’t brought Kelleher with them from the prison that morning and a prison escort Garda said the defendant hadn’t been with them either.

A bemused Judge Conal Gibbons asked Ms Spellman was she sure he had seen him and she replied that she had indeed and that she was talking to him.

“That’s the bit I cannot figure out,” said the Judge.

“He said his name was Kelleher,” said an increasing bewildered Ms Spellman.

She checked with the solicitor from her office, Mr Robert Walsh who had represented Kelleher in Castlerea and he had confirmed to her that the defendant had indeed been remanded in custody from the previous Friday.

Judge Gibbons said the whole thing was very strange.

The case was adjourned for a period but there was still no sign of the defendant when it was reached a second time.

He said he would issue a body warrant for the defendant and remanded the defendant in his absence to appear at Sligo District Court this coming Thursday.

Body warrants are issued for those who are in custody and is sent to the prison where the prisoner is being held to compel the authorities to bring them to court.

It remains to be seen how a body warrant can be executed for someone who may not be in custody. It’s also a mystery how someone listed as being in custody isn’t and was able to walk out of two courts unchallenged despite having not having signed a bail bond.

Kelleher with an address at Shalomar, Finisklin is charged with breaking two windows at the doctors’ residence at Sligo University Hospital on September 30 th last.