A Co Clare fire officer lost his job after he allegedly made 54 bogus calls to the service.
Fire officer Anthony Fitzpatrick, Fergus Park, Ennis, appeared before the District Court yesterday charged with persistently making telephone calls to Ennis fire service between January and July last year.
The 54 bogus calls related to incidents in the Ennis region. Crews from the fire service responded on each occasion, incurring a loss of €40,000. Det-Garda Gerry Foley said hearing the alarm going off made the accused man feel important. The court was told that the accused man had been receiving medical treatment for stress and had since lost his job.
Judge Joseph Mangan adjourned the case for a month to allow for a book of evidence to be prepared.
Man jailed for syringe robbery
A man has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for holding a syringe to another man's throat while robbing him. Damien Telford (28), Mountainview Park, Rathfarnham, pleaded guilty to robbing the man at the entrance to Grangewood Estate, Rathfarnham, on May 24th last. The court heard Telford approached the man, held a syringe to his throat and demanded his money and jewellery.
Incestuous father freed after 6 years
A man serving a nine-year sentence for incest against his daughter has been released after six years following a review by the Central Criminal Court.
The Galway man, now aged 56, was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment on March 3rd 1997 after he pleaded guilty to nine counts of incest against his daughter between 1987 and 1994. There were 48 counts on the original indictment, including 12 counts of rape.
The victim, now 25, made the complaints when she was aged 19.
Mr Justice Carney said in this case Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness had given the defendant a legitimate expectation of a sentence review after six years when she imposed the sentence. On the basis of this expectation, it would be unconstitutional for him to tell the defendant that his sentence could not be reviewed. He suspended the remaining three years of the sentence on condition that the defendant enter into his own bond of €1,000 to keep the peace for the next three years. He was also added to the sexual offenders' register.
Boy returned to detention centre
A 12-year-old boy who is facing 28 charges has been sent back to a detention centre on remand until a health board unit decides whether or not it can take him into care. The Dublin Children's Court had heard that the boy, from the north inner city, had been remanded to a juvenile detention centre in January to await placement in a suitable facility because there were none available then. The court heard earlier that he was beyond his family's control.
He had been involved in car-stealing incidents, public-order breaches, phone snatches, assaults on gardaí, trespassing and possession of implements for use in larcenies. He had skipped court five times.
Judge Browne remanded the boy to Oberstown Boys' Centre until April 4th pending a decision about sending him to Crannóg Nua, a unit for troubled children in north Dublin.