Prison sentence for man who assaulted garda

BY DAVID FORSYTHE

A MAN who assaulted a garda in Macroom has been handed a prison sentence in the district court.

Inspector Anthony Harrington told Macroom District Court that Brian O’Sullivan, 35, of Gurrane, Clondrohid, Macroom was spotted by gardaí discarding a small bag of white powder shortly after midnight in Macroom on May 22nd. The powder was subsequently sent for testing.

When he was questioned about it Mr O’Sullivan became aggressive and lunged at Garda Keith O’Leary attempting to drag him to the ground and ripping his shirt in the process. The court heard that Gda O’Leary suffered a red welt mark to his neck as a result of the assault. Mr O’Sullivan was arrested and taken to Macroom Garda Station where he continued to behave in an abusive manner while in custody. The court was told that Mr O’Sullivan had 52 previous convictions including some for criminal damage and assault.

Defence solicitor Sean Cahill conceded that Mr O’Sullivan did have an appalling record but added that he was a full-time carer for his father who is paralysed from the waist down.
He said that there was ‘a level of intoxication’ at the time of the incident and that Mr O’Sullivan who is a tiler by trade had an issue with alcohol.

Mr O’Sullivan told the court that on the day of the incident he had been in court and was ‘under pressure.’ He said that it was never his intention to harm Garda O’Leary and he apologised to him the following day. Mr Cahill said that his client had been in custody since July 4th and he asked Judge Philip O’Leary to consider the possibility of community service.

On the assault charge Judge O’Leary convicted Brian O’Sullivan and sentenced him to nine months in prison with the last six months suspended.

On the criminal damage charge he was convicted and sentenced to three months and the obstruction charge was taken into consideration. The sentences were backdated to July 4th and will run concurrently.