OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Novel justice in Kerry

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

In the annals of Irish criminal justice, Kerry judge Terence Finn’s recent decision must rank among the strangest.

Faced with an Algerian immigrant who verbally abused a garda on a Listowel street, the judge took a novel approach and sentenced the asylum seeker to 500 lines — that is the high school punishment to write out a banal sentence hundreds of times.

According to the Kerryman newspaper, the court heard the defendant Rami Rashid had been drunk and staggering around the hotel where he was staying when gardai arrived to deal with a disturbance. Swearing liberally, the defendant became aggressive with the officers, the gardai testified.

Lawyers for the defendant said he was awaiting asylum and was not used to alcohol because it was not part of his culture. But the judge showed a little sympathy.

Saying that he understood the defendant’s limited financial means, the judge suggested he improve his English by writing out 500 times: "I must not be abusive to a member of the Garda Siochana."

But the judge’s innovative decision fell flat. The defendant was illiterate in both English and Arabic. He was fined £50 anyway.

Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo

Subscribe to one of our great value packages.

Cheeky rustlers

Forget Dublin’s mobile phones and flash Mercs. Modern Ireland still has its fair share of tradition — rustling, for instance.

A Killarney farmer who lost an estimated £7,000 worth of cattle to rustlers has called on vigilant "rustler-busters" to help him solve the mystery disappearance.

Seamus O’Connor lost 10 valuable bullocks to thieves during an early morning raid on remote lands. But more than a week after the brazen raid, gardai have no leads about the herd.

The Kerry’s Eye reports that O’Connor was due to sell the cattle at a local mart before the fattened cattle were rounded up under cover of darkness.

Now the farmer has offered £500 for the return of the animals. Gardai said the daring rustling raid — the first of its kind in the area — was a well-planned operation carried out by at least two people using a large transport vehicle.

The crafty thieves knew their cattle too — they took 10 of the best from a full field.

"It was a big operation, and they had to use a big truck to move the cattle. Someone has to know something about it, because someone had to see it," said the distraught farmer.

Pokemon pervert

Gardai have warned Limerick parents that a local pervert is using the popular children’s game Pokémon cards to lure children into his car.

The Limerick Leader reports that in the latest incident saw three children approached in the Raheen area over a recent weekend. Gardai confirmed five incidents reported by parents, including one when a man flashed.

One mother said her 7-year-old son was approached by a man fitting the description.

"He called him over and offered him a can of coke," she said. "Luckily, my childminder spotted him and called my son over. A neighbor gave chase but he was gone. I’ve drummed into him not to speak to strangers, but they’re only kids. Sometimes they don’t realize what they’re doing," the mother said.

Another parent said her child was approached with the offer of Pokémon cards, the wildly popular Japanese game with cartoon characters.

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese