A Dublin man has been jailed for 5½ years for several separate offences including assaulting two prison officers and threatening to throw ammonia over a woman garda.
Michael Farrell (31) pleaded guilty to two counts of assault causing harm in 2022, one count of threatening to kill or cause serious harm in 2021 and a fourth count of possessing a realistic imitation firearm in a tree at his home in Montpelier Gardens, Dublin 7, in 2020.
When sentenced on Thursday at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Farrell said: “You’d get less for manslaughter.”
Judge Elma Sheahan noted that Farrell had acquired a serious brain injury when he was knocked down by a coal truck at the age of six, leaving him with a mild intellectual disability.
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She sentenced Farrell to six years in prison with the final six months suspended and ordered him to comply with all directions from the probation services on his release.
“He will need help in the community on his release,” said the judge.
The court heard that Farrell has 231 previous convictions, of which 81 were for Circuit Court offences.
His previous convictions include 77 road traffic offences, 55 for criminal damage, and others including handling stolen property and possessing drugs. He was also once convicted of spraying blood with the intention of causing a person to become infected.
Earlier this week, a prosecuting garda told Derek Cooney, for the State, that the first offence took place when Farrell was in the front garden of his home on October 9th, 2020.
A female staff member of St Bricín’s Military Hospital in Arbour Hill was driving to work when she passed Farrell in his front garden, who pulled up his top to display what looked like a firearm.
The woman became frightened and reported it to the garda on gate duty at St Bricíns.
The following day gardaí searched Farrell’s house under warrant and found a quantity of drugs, for which Farrell later received an 18-month sentence.
Farrell told gardaí who were searching his house that they would find the firearm hidden in a tree in his garden, which they did. The weapon was found to be an imitation firearm.
Judge Sheahan said this offence was at the lower end of the scale and imposed an 18-month sentence to run concurrent to his other sentences.
The second offence took place on March 3rd, 2021, while Farrell was undergoing psychological assessment at Cloverhill Prison.
When asked by the psychiatrist how he felt about charges pending against him, Farrell referred to a female garda who had previously objected to his bail.
He said he would “throw a bottle of ammonia” in the face of a named garda when her saw her. When asked to retract this threat, Farrell responded: “I don’t care.”
The court heard that the garda took the threat seriously due to her previous engagement with Farrell and her concern that she might encounter him again in the course of her duties. She prepared a victim impact statement which was submitted to the court. The judge said this offending was at the mid-range and imposed a three-year sentence.
The third group of offences took place on March 10th, 2022 in Mountjoy Prison, when Farrell launched unprovoked attacks on two prison officers.
The court heard he had twice requested to go and have a shower but a prison officer had refused as he said he had to escort prisoners to the exercise yard. When the same prison officer was bringing prisoners back from the yard at lunchtime, Farrell was let out of his cell and he struck the officer with a closed fist to his mouth. A second prison officer intervened to try and restrain Farrell and suffered a fracture to his little finger in the process.
Both officers were treated at Smithfield Medical Unit, the first man needing three stitches inside his mouth and the second, a splint for his little finger.
The judge said these assaults were in the upper range of offending as they were unprovoked attacks on officers tasked to keep order and in the course of carrying out their duties.
Farrell was sentenced to three years for the assaults, to run consecutively to the sentence for threatening the garda.
The judge said the aggravating factors in all instances were the serious nature of the offending, while the mitigating factors included Farrell’s brain injury and his associated difficulties.
She noted that Farrell had addiction problems over a long period but had apologised for his offences and had the support of his mother who was present in court.
The court heard previously from counsel for the defence that Farrell had experimented with alcohol and cannabis at 10 years old and was reliant on benzodiazepines by age 16.
He tried heroin in his late teens but denies having used it since the court heard.
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