Liam Keane jailed for threatening behaviour
A 19-year-old Limerick man, who was at the centre of a collapsed murder trial, has been jailed for four months for public order offences outside the city's courthouse.
Liam Keane of Singland Gardens, Ballysimon, Limerick, was charged with threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour at Merchant's Quay, Limerick, on November 26 last.
He was also charged with failing to comply with a direction of a member of An Garda Siochana on the same date.
Sergeant Seamus Nolan told Limerick District Court today that Liam Keane was on the steps of the courthouse on November 26 last when a party known to the accused came out of the building.
Keane then shouted a number of serious threats regarding the man's personal safety on the steps of the court, the case heard.
Sergeant Nolan called on Keane - who he said had no business being outside the court - to stop making the threats and told the other man to go back inside the building.
However, the threats continued and Keane ran off in the direction of Nicholas Street.
Defence Solicitor, Ted McCarthy, said his client had admitted the offences and claimed that he had reacted to a particular gesture that was made towards him.
"He does not seek to justify this in any way. He should have known better and he accepts that," he said.
The court also heard from gardaí that Liam Keane had a number of previous convictions - the bulk of them for public order offences.
He had been given a three-month suspended sentence for a breach of the Public Order Act just three weeks before the November 26 offence, the court heard.
Mr McCarthy asked Judge Tom O'Donnell to take into account that his client had not been in trouble since the last offence and that he had pleaded guilty.
Judge O'Donnell said Liam Keane had been offered a lifeline on a previous occasion and had still ended up back in court.
"I find your client's attitude unacceptable. He was given a chance and he refused to take it," said the judge.
Judge O'Donnell sentenced Keane to three months imprisonment on the charge of threatening behaviour.
He jailed him for four months on the charge of failing to comply with the garda's directive - with both sentences to run concurrently.
Liam Keane dramatically walked free from a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court on November 3 last after the case against him collapsed in controversial fashion.
The case collapsed when several prosecution witnesses denied making statements to gardaí identifying Liam Keane as the killer of 19 year-old Eric Leamy.
Keane had denied the murder at Lee Estate, Limerick, in August 2001.
