'Complaint against capitalism' prompted tyre-slashing spree, court told
A man who was one of a group of three that slashed 128 tyres because of “some sort of complaint they had about capitalism” has been given a suspended sentence.
Michael Somers (aged 25) of Tara Hill Road, Rathfarnham, caused €22,314 worth of damage to the vehicles the group targeted that night. He later told gardaí that they only selected vehicles that were registered after 2003.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three charges of criminal damage on September 18, 2007. The charges represented a sample of 24 counts. He has no previous convictions and has not come to garda attention since.
Judge Martin Nolan noted that Somers was “motivated by some political belief that there is just too great a disparity of wealth in the world...That may be the case but I don’t see how the slashing of tyres could help that situation.”
Judge Nolan said Somers was “going in a good direction” and imposed a three-year suspended sentence with 18 months probation supervision.
At a previous hearing, Garda Susan Rowland agreed with Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC, (with Mr Pieter Le Vert BL), defending, that his client was living in a hostel for the homeless at the time, having previously been discharged from a psychiatric hospital.
She agreed that he was approached by this other person who was “very upset with the world” and he got involved in the scheme having seen something on “YouTube”.
Garda Rowland told Mr Garnet Orange BL, prosecuting, that 77 tyres were slashed at Rathdown Motors in Templeogue after the group had wandered through Rathmines and Ranelagh cutting the tyres with a fish-gutting knife.
Somers was arrested from CCTV footage and made full admissions. He told gardaí that he had been smoking cannabis earlier that day.
Mr Mill-Arden told Judge Delahunt that Somers’ mother died when he was quite young and his father passed away four years ago. He started drinking heavily at 15 and abusing cannabis at 19 years old.
He said that Somers had psychiatric problems in the past and had been prescribed anti-depressants and attended a psychiatric hospital.
Mr Mill-Arden said his client has since started a Fetac course and he had €1,000 in court, which his stepmother had loaned him, as an expression of his remorse.
