‘The next time you feel like attacking somebody on public transport, I suggest that you walk’

A 39-year-old man who was drunk while he was a passenger on a Bus Éireann coach, swore at the driver and spat on his protective screen was berated by a judge at Trim District Court. He was fined and jailed.

Laurynas Repecka, with an address at Academy Square, Navan appeared at the court charged with criminal damage, threatening behaviour and intoxication on 1st February this year.

Details of the charges were read out at a previous hearing and the case was finalised last week.

Court presenter Sergeant Tom Mahon said that the driver had notified Bus Éireann headquarters that he was having trouble with a passenger on the Cavan road, Kells.

The man was in an intoxicated state upstairs on the bus and had missed his stop.

He became aggressive and was demanding to be returned to Navan from Ross Cross and asked the driver why he hadn’t woken him up. He became aggressive and called the driver names and when he was getting off the bus spat on the screen protecting the driver and also kicked the wing mirror of the bus, breaking it.

When Gardai arrived on the scene the defendant had become aggressive and had had to be restrained, the sergeant said.

The court heard that defendant had previous convictions for driving while under the influence and driving without insurance.

Sergeant Mahon said the accused had presented himself to him on the morning of the court, offering to apologise to the driver.

Judge Miriam Walsh said: “So he attacked this driver in the middle of a pandemic and spat on his protective screen. He effed and blinded, his words not mine, at the driver.”

“How dare you,” she said to the defendant. When she was told that he was from Lithuania and had lived in Ireland for 15 years, she said: “So this is how you treat the laws of this land. I’m sick and tired of people coming into court saying they are sorry”.

“A defending solicitor said that defendant had a partner and one child and the judge said: “My sympathy to her. He is a despicable person. The next time you feel like attacking somebody on public transport, I suggest you walk.”

She imposed fines to a total of €1,350 and a two-month prison sentence.

Separately, a 19-year-old man who broke Covid-19 regulations by driving outside a 5km limit has been fined at Trim District Court.

Arim Velic (19), Drumheath Avenue, Mulhuddat, Dublin was charged with a breach of the Covid-19 regulations on the N2 The Rath, Ashbourne on 20th January last.

The court was told that Garda Patrick McCafferty, Laytown stopped a car at The Rath. The defendant and three other people were in it.

Asked by Judge Miriam Walshe why he had driven outside the limit defendant replied that he had no way of getting to work in his new job and was going to buy a car. He did not know what date he had started the job and did not know the finishing date, he said.

Judge Walshe imposed a fine of €300.