HURLED ABUSE | 

Club goer (27) pepper-sprayed by gardai on night ‘that went very badly wrong’

Peter O’Connor avoided jail by a ‘whisker’

Andrew Phelan

Today at 07:44

A club-goer had to be pepper-sprayed when he resisted arrest after hurling abuse at gardaí on a “night out that went very badly wrong”.

Aviation worker Peter O’Connor (27) was leaving the nightclub as gardaí arrived to deal with a fight he was not involved in when he called them “w**kers”, a court heard.

Judge Brendan O’Reilly said he would spare him a criminal record if he made a €1,000 charity donation.

Adjourning the case, he told O’Connor he had been “within a whisker of going to prison”.

O’Connor, of Weirview, Lucan, pleaded guilty to garda obstruction, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and public intoxication.

Sergeant Maria Callaghan said gardaí were called to the scene of an “ongoing fight” outside Residence Bar on Main Street, Lucan, at 1.40am last December 10.

The accused was among patrons leaving and as he came up the stairs, he shouted “garda w**kers”. He continued to shout at them and failed to comply with any orders.

He aggressively resisted arrest, pushed past the gardaí and ran out the door on to the street, where pepper spray was used to arrest him. He had no previous convictions.

O’Connor had lost some close family members at the time and was in a “heightened emotional state,” his solicitor Valerie Buckley said. He had far too much to drink and as he made his way out, he thought he was being attacked from behind. “It was a night out that went very badly wrong for him,” Ms Buckley said.

O’Connor told the court: “I’m sincerely sorry to the garda.”