A 30-year-old Ennis man who was found with an open Stanley knife in his possession after a street row had more than 60 previous convictions, a judge heard.
James Clune, of 11 Ashville Park, Ennis, pleaded guilty before Ennis District Court to a charge of posses- sion of a knife on August 3.
Garda Gary Cooley told the court
that he was called to the Abbey Street car park at 1.30am where he found Clune and another man involved in an argument.
Garda Cooley said they the argu- ment had calmed somewhat from the time he had first received the call “but when we searched Clune, we found an open Stanley knife in his possession.’
Inspector Michael Kennedy read out some of the most recent of a
string of previous convictions for Judge Leo Malone.
These included three convictions for possession of knives, burglary, theft, possession of illegal drugs, criminal damage, illegal possesion of a forged prescription, failing to ap- pear in court and being intoxicated.
Clune’s solicitor, Tara Godfrey, said her client has a “serious addic- tion problem. His father was a very violent man and he suffered at his
hands. He subsequently found his father dead. He has recently been attending Slainte and a psychiatrist and, in what was a Trojan effort for him, remained sober for one and a half weeks just before this incident.”
She asked that the court might con- sider putting off sentencing for a time to allow Clune to continue tackling abismsKelenlen(eyee
But Judge Malone said that he could not let him walk free from the court.
“The first time, I might consider a non-custodial penalty but the second time round, if you carry a knife, you go to prison.
‘People cannot go around carrying knives in public.”
The judge sentenced Clune to three months and set bail at his own bond of €600 with €300 to be lodged and an independent surety of €800 of which €400 was to be lodged, he directed.