A KILKENNY man who was given an honourable discharge from the US navy in 1997, made hundreds of threatening phone calls to an FBI agent over a nine-year period.
US and Irish authorities arrested him after his threats escalated to include a desire to shoot President George Bush through the head and blow up the US embassy in Dublin.
FBI special agent Christopher Meyer agreed with Judge Raymond Groarke at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that Declan O'Shea (38), Salthill, Galway, must have been "bonkers" when he made the threats.
He said he became more concerned when the calls escalated to include threats to Mr Bush's life and bomb threats to a naval destroyer and US embassies.
Thirteen FBI special agents travelled to Galway last Thursday to give evidence at O'Shea's trial.
The accused at first denied three charges, including making a hoax bomb call to the San Diego police department, at rush hour on February 6th, 2004, in which he said he had placed a 318kg (700lb) bomb under the interstate highway in San Diego.
A second charge related to the making of another hoax bomb call to the US naval destroyer USS Stethem on February 7th, 2004.
The third charge involved the making of more than 500 nuisance phone calls to FBI special agent Meyer on dates between January 1st, 2003, and January 31st, 2004.
A jury was empanelled to hear evidence in the trial but was discharged when O'Shea entered a guilty plea to the third charge only. Det Sgt Maura Walsh, of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Dublin, said she and a colleague travelled to San Diego in December 2004, spoke to the FBI agents and got tapes of O'Shea's phone calls.
Det Sgt Walsh returned to Galway and obtained a warrant on January 26th, 2005, to search a house on Greenfields Road, Salthill, where O'Shea was staying at the time.
He was detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and admitted making all the calls.
Det Walsh said O'Shea, who now works as a security man in a Galway shopping centre, had emigrated to the US in 1992 and joined the US navy in 1993. He remained in the navy before getting an honourable discharge in 1997.
John Peart, SC, defending, said O'Shea's mental state had deteriorated while he was in the navy and two psychiatrists had found he suffered from a paranoid psychotic condition which occurred during his naval service.
He said his client had been given disability payments in the US based on those medical reports.
Mr Peart put it to agent Meyer that he knew O'Shea was living in Ireland and that his threats could not be taken seriously.
He said his client had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Kilkenny in 1997 on his return from San Diego. Judge Groarke asked agent Meyer if he thought "in layman's language" that O'Shea might have been "bonkers" at the time he made the phone calls.
"Yes, I think he was bonkers to a certain degree. There was something that was not working for him mentally, but his capability in carrying out the threats, that is something I didn't know," agent Meyer replied.
Mr Peart asked Judge Groarke to adjourn sentencing until his client could be psychiatrically assessed and a report could be furnished to the court.
Judge Groarke agreed to adjourn the matter to July 10th.