A Letterkenny teenager has been jailed for four months for his part in separate incidents while he was a juvenile.
John McGinley, an 18-year-old of Glenwood Park, appeared before Letterkenny District Court in connection with the ancients in June 2021 and August 2021.
McGinley is currently incarcerated in Castlerea Prison, where he is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for stabbing a man in the face on Letterkenny Main Street in April 2022.
McGinley was brought to court by prison officers.
Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that on June 26, 2021, McGinley was in the company of another person during an altercation. A man sustained what was described as ‘quite a serious injury’ to his eye after being beaten with a wheel brace.
The court heard that McGinley had given the wheel brace to the assailant.
“The other person has been brought to court and dealt with,” Sergeant Collins said, adding that McGinley ‘did acknowledge certain aspects of his interactions’ and was ‘somewhat co-operative’.
On August 13, 2021, a couple were sitting in their car at Pearse Road, Letterkenny when McGinley, who was in the company of another person, approached and words were exchanged.
Damage was caused to the passenger door and wing mirror of a black Audi by McGinley and the other person. Approximately €250 worth of damage was caused, the court heard.
Sergeant Collins said McGinley was ‘somewhat co-operative if not completely co-operative’.
Solicitor for McGinley, Mr Rory O’Brien, said his client is a ‘very young man’ who had pleaded guilty to the offences.
He said his client is in custody and serving a sentence. The court was advised that McGinley is due for release in May 2025.
“He is doing his best and is using all available resources,” Mr O’Brien said. “He has re-engaged with education and is doing his absolute best. He made valuable pleas in relation to both charges. He had difficulty with drink and drugs, which were introduced to him at a very early stage of his life. He was associated with a negative peer group and he has contributed a fairly reckless attitude to most matters.”
Mr O’Brien said McGinley was now ‘working towards bettering himself’.
Judge Éiteáin Cunningham convicted McGinley and sentenced him to two months in prison on each charge with the sentence to run concurrently.