Drug-induced psychosis after taking cocaine 

A MAN who was suffering from a drug-induced psychosis after taking cocaine was last week before Carlow District Court, where he pleaded guilty to a charge of trespassing.

David Kelly, Graigue na hAbhainn, Graiguecullen, pleaded guilty to trespassing with intent and criminal damage at the Spar grocery shop in Graiguecullen on 23 September last year.

Inspector David Shore told the court that 31-year-old Mr Kelly was arrested and charged by gardaí after he was identified on CCTV cameras trying to break into the shop. He told Judge Geraldine Carthy that Mr Kelly had used a crowbar to prise open the steel shutters but fled the scene when the alarm went off. Insp Shore said that the defendant had 13 previous convictions, including criminal damage and trespassing.

Solicitor Chris Hogan said that his client had been arrested under the Mental Health Act and spent five days in hospital after the incident. He continued that Mr Kelly had experience a drug-induced psychosis after taking cocaine and that he told him the attempted break-in was “all a blur” because of the amount he had taken.

Mr Hogan told Judge Carthy that Mr Kelly was now clean of drugs, was in employment and “was a father again to his three children”. When Mr Hogan submitted to her that a probation report should be prepared to see how best to construct sentencing for Mr Kelly, Judge Carthy refused the submission. She said that while she understood that Mr Kelly was substance-free and now working, the offences before her were at a higher level, adding that it was attempted burglary. She then convicted and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment and remanded him to appear again tomorrow, Tuesday 2 April.

Recognisances were fixed in the event of an appeal.