Man with many previous convictions gets six months in Carlow court
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A 37-YEAR-old man with many previous convictions, including 31 for theft and 35 for public order offences, has been sentenced to six months in custody and received a fully suspended ten-month term at Carlow District Court after a judge said she would structure his sentence to give him support.
Michael Barry had entered guilty pleas to a section 4 offence of being intoxicated in a public place, a section 6 offence of threatening or abusive behaviour under the and a section 4 theft offence.
His solicitor, Chris Hogan, told Judge Geraldine Carthy that his client had been on remand for the charges before the court, but was serving a separate sentence that expired on the day of the hearing. Mr Hogan said a probation report on his client was positive, noting that Mr Barry had demonstrated “insight into his offences” in the context of a chronic addiction to alcohol.
“In my respectful submission, he had proved himself better in January when released from prison and in March when he went into custody,” said Mr Hogan.
He acknowledged that his client had failed to attend court on one occasion but explained that this was because the date fell on the anniversary of his mother’s death.
The solicitor asked the court to bear in mind what he described as “his life’s tragedy” â the loss of his mother and his brother, as well as his “isolated existence” and his difficulties with alcohol.
Mr Hogan added that the probation report noted Mr Barry, with an address of The Good Shepherd, Kilkenny was now living with a family member who was “a positive influence” on him.
“I hope I’m not overstepping the mark by saying this: he could be on the right trajectory if given a suspended sentence with conditions and, if he was to breach, this the court knows exactly where he would end up,” the solicitor said.
Judge Carthy acknowledged the submission but noted that Mr Barry had “a chequered history”.
“Over the course of a number of events before court, he was on bail and continued to commit offences,” she added.
The judge said she had come to the conclusion that she would structure the sentence in such a way as to give Mr Barry support.
On the section 4 public order charge, she convicted and sentenced him to six months in custody, citing the fact that the offence had been committed while he was on bail. On the section 6 charge, he received a consecutive two-month custodial sentence. For the theft offence, he was convicted and sentenced to ten months, suspended in its entirety for 18 months.
All remaining charges were taken into consideration. Mr Barry was also ordered to sign on daily at Kilkenny Garda Station.
