Meath man who was swinging baseball bat in garden of Louth house given chance to avoid jail
Conor Farrelly, De Valera Park, Drumconrath, Co. Meath, had been sentenced in the district court to concurrent nine-month jail terms for trespassing and producing a baseball bat at Tullykeel, Ardee, on September 23, 2023.
The appeal at Dundalk Circuit Court heard that no one was in the house at the time. The homeowner got a notification on his phone that someone was on the property which was covered by CCTV.
The appellant arrived in a blue-coloured car. He climbed over a gate with a bat in his hand.
He began shouting and swinging the bat and attempted to strike two dogs in the garden. The animals were unharmed.
Mr Farrelly approached the front door and then went around the back of the house before climbing over the gate and leaving.
Gardaí arrived shortly after 4pm. An officer subsequently identified the culprit from the CCTV. He was located two weeks later in Donore, Co. Meath in a similar vehicle.
A voluntary statement was taken in which he made full admissions. Mr Farrelly indicated where the baseball bat was.
In the statement, he said that he and a teenage boy had a falling out after the younger person called him a heroin addict and a junkie.
He called to the house. He got the baseball bat to scare him. 'I had a bad day'.
Sgt Paddy Skehan said that the teenager had been 'winding him up' on Snapchat. There had been no further interaction between them.
There were 19 previous convictions, including eighteen for Road Traffic offences which occurred within the space of a year. The other was for an affray in 2016 for which an 18-month suspended sentence was imposed in 2023.
Solicitor Catherine Taaffe said that her client struggled with a predominantly heroin addiction. He had been on remission for eight months but relapsed. He was struggling and needed intervention. He was due to undergo a methadone programme.
Ms Taaffe continued that this seemed an isolated incident. The situation had calmed down.
Mr Farrelly had removed himself from all social media platforms.
Judge Dara Hayes adjourned the appeal to July 31 for a probation report and community service assessment.
If the report was positive and Mr Farrelly deemed suitable for community service, the judge said he would impose 150 hours community service on one of the counts and would suspend the other for 12 months.
Legal aid was granted.
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme
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