Judge says mum could face prison

A MOTHER-of-three who tried to gouge a garda’s eyes out at the Timoleague Music Festival last year has been told by Judge Mary Dorgan that she could face a prison sentence for the assault.

The judge then sought a victim impact statement from the gardaí before deciding on a penalty.

Judge Dorgan was dealing with the case of Anna Kowalik of Derrigra, Ballineen, at a recent sitting of Clonakilty District Court where a probation report was produced following a previous court sitting where details of the case were outlined. 

Solicitor Eamonn Fleming said his client had pleaded guilty to a number of charges including assaulting Gda Nicola Cogan, resisting and obstructing her in the course of her duty and failing to comply with garda directions to leave the scene.

‘She has not come to the attention of gardaí since the incident on August 28th last and is a mother of three children and has a good work ethic. She had an enormous amount of alcohol on the night and has little recollection of what happened,’ said Mr Fleming.

‘She accepts she got extremely out of order and she has no previous convictions for this type of behaviour. She has been in Ireland 11 years and difficult family circumstances forced her to leave Poland. She works full-time and gave birth to a baby in May and the probation report show she is of low risk of re-offending.’

Mr Fleming added that his client had learned a very salutary lesson and that this offence has been hanging over her for the past 12 months and that she has written a letter of apology to Gda Cogan.

Judge Dorgan said that the defendant ‘tried to gouge Gda Cogan’s eyes out’.

She asked for a victim impact statement from the gardaí and adjourned the case until September 4th.