Dundalk man sentenced for producing iron bar during dispute

A 31 year old man who was involved in a series of incidents during which weapons were produced and criminal damage was caused, has been sentenced to a total of eight months at Dundalk District Court.

The solicitor representing Leonard Ward with addresses at Church Street, Dundalk and Cois Cuain, Point Road, Dundalk, told the court his client wished to apologise to the community and gardaí for his behaviour.

The court heard last Wednesday that the defendant had broken four panes of glass at a property on the Point Road, Dundalk on May 21st last year. Ten days later he spat at a Garda in a cell at Dundalk Garda Station.

Two weeks after that he verbally abused gardaí who had followed him to an apartment on Church Street, where he lifted a large kitchen knife above his head and ran down the stairs but his father stopped him from leaving the property.

On August 18th last the 31 year old threw delph out of the window of the flat and attempted to break a window next door and struck a garda on the leg with a can of beer. On September 2nd, gardai received a report that he had swung a metal bat at two women who claimed that he said he had threatened to burn the home of one of them. The item involved proved to be a spirit level. Sixteen days later he attacked a car with an iron bar on Church Street and was later observed on the roof of a building nearby.

The court heard he had 45 previous convictions and is studying maths, woodwork and Spanish in prison and is trying to deal with his addiction problems while in custody. Judge Eirinn McKiernan sentenced him to a total of eight months for producing an iron bar in the course of a dispute and producing the spirit level with the intention of intimidation and marked the other offences taken into consideration.