A “very, very nasty man” who tried to bite a Garda and told him he “had the virus” has been jailed for five months.
Noel Kinsella (41) has 98 previous convictions, including threatening to spray blood, burglary, robbery, false imprisonment, endangerment, car theft and road traffic offences.
Judge Patrick McCartan described Kinsella as a “very, very nasty man” before imposing a five-month sentence. The offence of obstruction carried a maximum sentence of six months.
Kinsella, of St Anthony’s Road, Rialto, Dublin, had denied the charges of the assault causing harm to Garda Ross Mannix and to obstructing the Garda at his home on November 11, 2013.
Last month a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court acquitted him of the assault charge but found him guilty of obstruction.
Luigi Rea BL, defending, told the court that his client was a father of one who was anxious to put a history of drug abuse behind him.
The court heard that Gda Mannix approached Kinsella to carry out a drug search. Kinsella ran and the Garda, who knew Kinsella, chased him to his home.
Gda Mannix told the trial he caught up with Kinsella but the accused kept trying to get away. Kinsella got into his house and fell in the front door with the Garda on top of him.
Kinsella shouted “I have the virus” and made biting motions at the Garda’s leg, Gda Mannix told the trial. He said that during the struggle he hit his hand against something and this caused a painful fracture which left his hand in a cast for weeks.
At his sentencing Judge McCartan said that the Garda would not have suffered the injury he did if Kinsella submitted to the search as he was obliged by law to do.
“As a result of this the Garda suffered a serious injury,” the judge said. “He (Kinsella) struggled with a view to avoid being searched.”
He added that while no drugs were found on Kinsella when the search was finally carried out, he was carrying a “sizeable” amount of money for which he had “little or no explanation”.
Declan Brennan