Meath county councillor abused by man who then spat in his face raises issue of risks to public reps doing their job

A Meath county councillor who was assaulted by a man who spat in his face has issued a statement about the risks to public representatives due to their role.

The incident in which Laytown/Bettystown Cllr Paddy Meade was attacked in a Slane pub was dealt with on Tuesday at Trim District Court. Following the case the Fine Gael councilor made a statement and received support from the vice chairman of Meath County Council, Cllr Caroline O’Reilly,.

Councillor Meade is the second Fine Gael public representative in the county who was the victim of an attack that came before Trim District Court in recent months.

In September Cllr Alan Tobin told how he had thought twice about being a public representative after a 50-year-old man threatened to kill or maim him as he went about doing voluntary work in Ashbourne.

Councillor Meade was in Boyle’s public house on Main Street, Slane on 13th December last when a man whom he did not know approached him, verbally abused him and then spat in his face.

Luke Naughton (36), formerly of Dowth, County Meath but with an address at Rockfield Close, Ardee was charged with threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and assault on Mr Meade.

Sergeant Alan Ratcliffe told the court that the defendant approached the injured party and verbally abused him. The victim tried to walk away and the defendant spat in his face.

Defending barrister James O’Brien said that his client had never been in trouble. The defendant wrote a letter setting out the background.

The letter was given to Judge Eirinn McKiernan but its contents were not disclosed. She said that the defendant’s behaviour was “totally unacceptable”.

Mr O’Brien said that there was €500 available as compensation to the injured party. The Judge said that in the particular circumstances and taking account of the way the defendant had met the case, and that he had no previous record, she was striking out the charges. “I hope he has learned his lesson”, she commented..

After the case Mr Meade said that he had not been asked to attend court or to make a victim impact statement. In a statement he remarked "to think that the individual involved may have had no grievance with me or the council, did not know me personally other than to know I am a politician, and yet decided that this was sufficient reason to attack me is very concerning. Such an act raises serious questions about the risks public representatives may face simply due to their role”.

He said that he had never met Luke Naughton prior to the evening in question and to this day he could not recall any prior interaction with him. While the incident was unpleasant the aspect that troubled him most was the potential health risk from saliva entering his eyes. He had had to go for medical testing in Dublin as a precaution for a range of viral and bacterial infections. “ While this may appear excessive now, at the time and not knowing the individual involved and the uncertainty about potential infections caused me genuine concern”.

He told that the defendant walked in front of him, blocking him and asked “Are you Fine Gael or Fianna Fail” to which he had replied, while walking around the individual, “What’s the difference?”. Mr Meade said the defendant then replied “Either way you’re a f*****g w****r.” It was immediately after this that the interaction escalated.

Mr Meade said he tried to resolve the matter the next day by sending a letter to the accused asking why the incident had happened, whether it would happen again and whether the person involved was sorry. He said Mr Naughton told him he did not recollect the incident.

Mr Meade said that since the incident approaches and enquiries were made to him about the incident “including from national public representatives and others”. Mr Meade said that it had been indicated during the hearing that an apology had been offered but he had not received or seen any apology.

“Fundamentally I believe in democracy. It is an idea that our country holds strongly and while there are many politicians in Ireland and abroad whose views people may disagree with they have been elected by the people they represent. The day we allow people to simply attack politicians because they are politicians is a worrying one because it raises the question of how we will encourage people to step forward for public service in the future if they believe they may be subjected to that kind of behaviour”. He said the situation was concerning. He said the €500 offered in court will be given by him to charity.

Councillor Caroline O’Reilly, Leas Cathaoirleach of Meath County Council said that as elected representatives they accepted criticism and disagreement as part of public life but there was a clear line between that and abuse or assault. “Being spat on and assaulted simply because someone is a politician is completely unacceptable. The outcome does not seem to reflect the seriousness of what occurred and incidents like this should be treated seriously if we want people to feel safe serving their communities.”