Belcarra man gets community service for FG office damage

A BELCARRA man who caused damage to the Taoiseach’s constituency office in Castlebar has paid €150 in compensation to the Fine Gael party.
Liam Heffernan of Kilnageer, Belcarra, appeared before Castlebar District Court on two criminal damage charges and four public order charges.
Though Mr Heffernan told the court that he would prefer the money go to charity, the compensation was lodged to the court to be given to the political party. Judge Mary Devins said she imagined the party would give to a charity of its choice.
The court had heard that  on December 13, 2014, Mr Heffernan caused damage to the Fine Gael constituency office sign and was charged with three public order offences: intoxication in a public place; threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place; and failure to comply with the direction of a member of An Garda SíochΡna.  

‘Highly intoxicated’
A previous court sitting heard that Garda John Melia observed Heffernan ‘highly intoxicated’ on the date in question. Garda Melia received a report a time later saying that Mr Heffernan was outside the constituency office of the Taoiseach and had removed a sign from the building. Mr Heffernan also wrote a message on the building. The message read out to the previous court stated, ‘Liam Heffernan took your sign, go sue me you traitor, you puppet for privatising our country’.
The court was told that although Mr Heffernan had initially complied with the garda’s direction to leave the scene, he returned a short time later.
Judge Devins noted that Mr Heffernan had 13 previous convictions and commented that she believed he enjoyed the ‘notoriety’ and experience of court.
Judge Devins convicted him of the first Section 2 criminal damage charge, sentencing him to 75 hours of community service in lieu of a three-month prison term. She also convicted Mr Heffernan of the second criminal damage charge, imposing a further 75 hours of community service in lieu of a consecutive three-month prison term. The remaining public order charges were taken into consideration.