‘Huge disrespect' - Kilkenny woman spitting at gardaí convicted of assault

A woman ‘showed huge disrespect’ towards gardaí by spitting at two of them, a district court judge said.

Renee Donohoe, 7 Abbey Bridge, Dean Street, was before Kilkenny District Court on two charges of assault and public order offences.

Sergeant Morgan O’Connor told the court that gardaí were called to a Kilkenny restaurant on January 14 last, where one woman was seen drinking out of a wine bottle. The second woman, Ms Donohoe, became aggressive and was shouting at gardaí. She ignored all directions from the gardaí and had to be arrested.

The court heard that Ms Donohoe spat at one garda on the way to the garda station. When she was being processed in the station she spat at a sergeant.
This led to the two assault charges.

Ms Donohoe also faced a public order charge. On June 21, at 12.30am, gardaí found her asleep on a grass verge. She was not wearing shoes.

When woken Ms Donohoe was abusive to the gardaí. She was taken to the garda station for her own safety.

Ms Donohoe was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

Solicitor Chris Hogan said his client had asked him to convey her apologies in court. She had apologised to the gardaí the day after the incident, he added.

He accepted spitting was very serious but said in one case the spit landed on the garda’s pants and the other incident missed.

Unfortunately, Mr Hogan said, his client has a difficulty with alcohol. Ms Donohoe had a challenging upbringing.
She got herself together but her difficulty with alcohol is coming to the fore now. She is engaging with the substance misuse team in Kilkenny.

Judge Cephas Power said the act of spitting at gardaí showed aggression and a huge disrespect towards them.
The court takes a serious view of such actions, he said.

Convicting Ms Donohoe on all three charges, Judge Power imposed a two-month prison sentence on each, to run consecutively.
In line with her attempts at rehabilitation, he said, that sentence is to be suspended in full for 12 months.