A DISTRICT court judge has said that anyone who urinates or defecates in garda custody should be made clean up the mess themselves. Judge James McNulty made the comment at Bandon District Court last week, following a case of a woman who urinated in a garda cell and smeared her own faeces on the cell door of the town’s garda station.
Judge McNulty said he had come across a number of similar cases in the last few months in the district courts of West Cork, including a recent case where a young man smeared his blood in a garda cell, also in Bandon.
‘Maybe they should go back to the garda station and clean up their own mess before they can be released on bail. There should be a special court sitting for incidences of this,’ said Judge McNulty. ‘The distasteful business of cleaning up your own urine and faeces shouldn’t be left to another person.’ He was told that a cleaning company is contracted to come in at a cost to clean garda custody cells in the event of someone urinating or defecating in them. But he said it is now a recurring problem and asked the prosecuting sergeant in court if they could check with garda bosses about the possibility of setting up a special court where culprits would have to clean up the mess before being granted bail.
