'He will sort me out': Woman threatened to have Garda sacked as she was friends with the judge
A woman arrested for a public order offence including spitting in the direction of a Garda later said she would get him sacked as she was friends with the judge and “he will sort me out”.
The same judge heard the case before Clonakilty District Court, where Christine Williamson denied making the comment at all, and also denied the public order charge and another of being intoxicated in a public place.
Judge James McNulty was told by Garda Joseph Grimes that at 2.35am on July 7 last he was dealing with a man found urinating on Pearse St in Clonakilty in Co Cork when Ms Williamson, of 3 Parkview in the town, intervened.
Garda Grimes said his colleague, Garda Kevin Kennedy, asked Ms Williamson to desist and to leave on three occasions before she spat in Garda Kennedy’s direction and called him a "pig”.
Garda Grimes told the court that after Ms Williamson had been placed, handcuffed, in the patrol car, she told Garda Kennedy she would have him sacked as she and Judge McNulty were friends.
Garda Grimes’s statement was made seven months after the incident but in his evidence Garda Kennedy read from contemporaneous notes. They outlined how Ms Williamson had accused gardaí of harassing her son and daughter, was intoxicated and then failed to comply with an order to leave the area.
“Christine Williamson spat on the ground in front of me and said ‘fucking pigs’,” Garda Kennedy said, also telling the court that in the patrol car she had said the judge was her friend and “he will definitely sort me out”.
Ms Williamson admitted she had drunk six pints of Coors Light in the two and a half hours before the incident but denied being drunk. She denied spitting or being abusive and said she only commented to gardaí “where are your manners” after Garda Kennedy allegedly shouted at her to move on. She said she felt like she was being “picked on” and denied making the comments in the patrol car.
Judge McNulty said the events of the night were like a reel of film with critical scenes missing. He said the evidence was insufficient regarding the public intoxication charge and dismissed it, but convicted Ms Williamson of the threatening or abusive words and behaviour charge, saying her memory of events may be deficient and that “she lapsed from the standard of good behaviour”.
“When things got out of hand her conduct deteriorated,” he said.
Ms Williamson, a mother of three, had no previous convictions and the judge fined her €100, adding that in his 15 years in West Cork he had found settled Travellers well regarded and respected in Clonakilty.
