Posted by Inspector McKenna said it took up to 12 gardaí to arrest him at the scene and that he instigated the whole incident and later smeared blood on the cell.
A report of a naked man running around Upper John’s Street in Cork city prompted a garda investigation which saw officers being assaulted and obstructed by a naked man.
Garda Molly O’Driscoll said gardaí were told that the man had run into an apartment building at St John’s Terrace so they went to that complex and knocked at apartment doors including Number 2 where Andy Ademola answered.
“He was naked and became abusive to gardaí before slamming the door. Then he followed gardaí into the hallway at St John’s Terrace apartments. He was extremely abusive and insulting,” Garda O’Driscoll.
After forming the opinion that he was drunk and a source of danger, Garda O’Driscoll went to arrest him with Garda Denis Coleman and Garda Ken O’Day and she said that the naked man struck Garda Coleman in the face.
“He had to be pepper-sprayed which proved effective. Later in a cell at Gurranabraher garda station he repeatedly punched the cell door causing his knuckles to bleed and he smeared the area with his blood,” Garda O’Driscoll said.
‘Not a place you could run around willy-nilly’
Diarmuid Kelleher solicitor said charges against the accused should be dismissed because they did not occur in a public place.
He said the hallway of the apartment building was not a large a space and added: “It is not a place you could run around willy-nilly.”
Mr Kelleher said Mr Ademola was the one who was injured both physically and emotionally during the incident.
Mr Kelleher said the defendant also said that he was wearing ‘jocks’.
Garda Coleman said that at one stage during the incident the defendant was wearing a towel around his waist.
As for the assault he said of the accused: “He threw his arm out and struck my face.”
Mr Kelleher objected to hearsay evidence of what was said by the woman who reported a naked man to gardaí in the first place. He said that because of her absence, the evidence was hearsay.
42-year-old Andy Ademola said in his evidence: “I don’t know how they [gardaí] got into the complex in the first place. I don’t know why they wanted to arrest me. I was doing the laundry. I found them in the hallway. I did not slam the door in anyone’s face.”
Inspector Brendan McKenna asked the defendant: “Do you usually walk down the communal corridor with no clothes on?” Mr Ademola replied: “It only takes 30 seconds up and down [to laundry in apartment building]. I was just checking whether the clothes were dry or not.”
Inspector McKenna said it took up to 12 gardaí to arrest him at the scene and that he instigated the whole incident and later smeared blood on the cell.
He replied that he could not see due to pepper-spray and was bleeding from the time of his arrest: “I was looking for help. They just threw me there to die. I was pleading.”
Charges
Judge John King dismissed charges of being threatening and being drunk and a danger because the apartment hallway was not a public place.
The judge said that it did not have to be a public place in respect of the charge of obstructing Garda Molly O’Driscoll and assaulting Garda Denis Coleman, and he convicted Andy Ademola on those charges.
He also convicted him of causing criminal damage to the holding cell.
Judge King put sentencing on the criminal damage charge back until November 25 for him to pay €250 compensation for the damage.
On that being done he will be required to a perform community service order.
The judge said that in November he would then adjourn for one year the sentencing of the defendant for assault and obstruction, indicating that suspended sentences would be imposed if there was no further trouble from him in the interim but jail terms if there were any new offences.
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