A MAN with 60 previous convictions who broke his bail conditions by drinking in public came before Bantry District Court last week.

James McCarthy (56) of Kilnaknappogue, Kealkil, previously had three charges adjourned to June 25th and had been granted bail at Clonakilty District Court.

One of the bail conditions imposed was that he must not drink in public. But on April 9th, the accused was found intoxicated at Reendesert in Ballylickey, so gardaí applied for his bail to be revoked.

Solicitor Flor Murphy said his client was pleading guilty to being drunk in a public place, but suggested to Judge Joanne Carroll that this was not sufficient to warrant James McCarthy being kept in custody until June.

Judge Carroll agreed with the solicitor and marked the intoxication charge as proven, but taken into consideration.

The judge asked Sgt Tom Mulcahy if the accused had complied with all other bail conditions and he confirmed that he had.

One of the conditions was that the accused was to create his own access road to his farm in Kealkil.

In court the accused told the judge that he had widened an old famine road so he would no longer need to use the road attached to farmland owned by his brothers.

James McCarthy said he was observing the bail condition instructing him to stay away from his brothers until the case was dealt with in June.

Mr Murphy said his client had been doing very well for a long time. He had been living in Dunmanway for a bit, but subsequently moved back to his own farm in Kealkil.

The solicitor alluded to the fact that his client was disappointed that some property had been sold in his absence and said it had led to a rift with some of his family.

Sgt Mulcahy told the court that the accused has 60 previous convictions, the most recent being a six-month sentence that was suspended for six months by a circuit court judge last October.

‘Two months later and he’s not obeying a direction given by a member of the gardaí,’ said Judge Carroll, who noted that the suspended sentence in that case might be activated.

Three other public charges were brought against the accused. Sgt Mulcahy said that on St Stephen’s Day, December 26th last, the accused was drunk in public, and he got stroppy with a garda and refused to leave the area after having caused a disturbance in a pub, and then started drinking someone else’s pint.

Sgt Mulcahy said a person ran out of The Quay’s pub and complained to gardaií that James McCarthy was hassling people inside. When the accused was brought outside, Gda Garry Coakley noticed that his eyes were glassy and his speech slurred.

The sergeant said the garda advised James McCarthy to leave the area and go home. But the accused declined saying he was going to a nearby hotel to buy fags.

He then picked up someone’s drink only for the garda to take it off him, arrest him, and bring him to Bantry Garda Station.As a chronic alcoholic, Mr Murphy told the judge that his client ‘upsets people when he is drunk.

When he is sober, James can understand when a garda is giving him a direction, but not when he is drunk.’

Judge Carroll convicted the accused of failing to comply with a direction given by Gda Coakley and imposed a four-month sentence, but suspended it for 18 months.

James McCarthy was also convicted of being intoxicated in a public place, and engaging in threatening or abusive words or behaviour on December 26th and both public order charges were marked proven but taken into consideration.

In relation to the case adjourned to June, Sgt Mulcahy said the Director of Public Prosecutions has yet to give a direction in that case.

In the meantime, Judge Carroll warned the accused not to go anywhere near his brothers or their properties.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.