A man who made derogatory comments about former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been fine a total of €350.
Jason Doherty appeared at Buncrana District Court charged with public order offences on November 10th, 2019.
Gardai told the court that they stopped 34-year-old Doherty at Park Lane, Buncrana and began to call them “piggy bastards” and then made derogatory marks about the then Taoiseach.
A few weeks later on December 23rd, 2019, Doherty was arrested again at the local Apache PIzza outlet when he became abusive following a complaint of criminal damage.
The court was told that Doherty, of Castle Park, Buncrana, has a total of 58 previous convictions and the majority of them were related to public order and were alcohol-related.
His solicitor, Mr Ciaran Mac Lochlainn said his client was now a changed man after he had met a young woman and had started to settle down.
He added that he never thought at the time that “any girl in her right mind would entertain him” but that he has now moved on.
Doherty told Judge Paul Kelly that on these occasions he had “fallen off the wagon” as his father was suffering from cancer at the time.
He was now working in Dublin where he was a scaffolder on the construction of a medical centre.
Judge Kelly asked the accused “What’s the issue with you and Gardai? You called them piggy bastards.”
Doherty replied that he didn’t have an issue with Gardai and that it was only when he was drunk that he became like this.
Judge Kelly fined him €150 for the offence on November 10th and a further €200 for the offence on December 23rd.
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