Man who broke former Taoiseach’s window told he is close to going to jail

A MAN who broke the window of Enda Kenny’s constituency office when he was An Taoiseach has been warned he is ‘very close to a custodial sentence’ for being involved in an altercation outside a Castlebar pub.
Liam Heffernan of Kilnageer, Belcarra, Castlebar pleaded guilty to two public order charges following an incident where he got involved in a physical confrontation with a security man outside the Irish House Pub in Castlebar.
Inspector Gary Walsh told Judge David Waters in Castlebar District Court that the incident occurred on September 17, 2016 at 10pm when gardaí came upon Mr Heffernan grappling with a security man.
Mr Heffernan was intoxicated and became abusive to both the security man and the gardaí and was arrested.
The court heard that Mr Heffernan caused criminal damage to the constituency office of Enda Kenny on two separate occasions, the first in 2014 and the second time in February 2017.
In December 2016, Mr Heffernan received 75 hours community service for damaging the constituency sign for the offence in 2014.
He appeared before court in July for breaking Mr Kenny’s office window in February and penalties were adjourned until July 2018 to see how he behaves.
Insp Walsh also said that Mr Heffernan has previous convictions for public order offences.
Representing himself in court, Mr Heffernan said he has a problem with alcohol and had tried to stay off it. He said he had been drinking on the day of the All-Ireland football final and had banged on the door of the pub to try and get in. He said he knew the security guard on the door and claimed he remained quiet when the gardaí arrived.
Mr Heffernan said he was trying to stay off alcohol and deal with stress and said ‘unfortunately I let myself down’ on the evening. He asked Judge Waters to be lenient.
Judge Waters said that because he was not on bail when the offence occurred, it had saved him a prison sentence but he was going very close to a custodial sentence. He fined Mr Heffernan €300 for threatening and abusive behaviour and €100 for intoxication in a public place.