It sounds like a sketch but a man was found guilty of using ‘threatening, abusive and insulting words’ at St James’s Hospital.
A Dublin man has been found guilty of using threatening, abusive and insulting words after calling a member of An Garda Siochana a ‘bacon, cabbage and spud-munching culchie’ in an incident in May.
According to a report in today’s Irish Independent 52-year-old Alex Lyons had suffered a stroke earlier in the year and spent four weeks at St James’s Hospital. He returned on May 9 with a number of grievances and demanded to see a social worker. He had also parked in an area he was not supposed to but he refused and sat down on the floor in protest.
Garda Shane Lohan arrived to find Lyons being restrained by a security guard and he heard Lyons say “‘f*** you, you Nazi – you bacon, cabbage and spud-munching p***k’,” according to Garda Lohan’s testimony.
The defence argued that the Nazi comment was not directed at the Garda and Lyons said he had not called the Garda a ‘p***k’ but a ‘culchie’, adding “culchies are cool”.
Despite his defence arguing that calling somebody a culchie was possibly offensive but not criminal, Lyons was found guilty of using threatening, abusive and insulting words and Judge James Faughnan adjourned the case until December to consider whether to impose a one-year peace bond on Lyons.
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