A teenage soccer fan was foaming at the mouth when he threatened to punch a Garda in the face who had directed him to stay off the pitch during an Eircom League match between Bohemians and Galway United at Terryland Park in Galway. Garda Damien Gormally told Galway District Court he feared for his safety and had to retreat when up to 100 Bohemian fans surrounded him and kept egging the youngster on.

Before the court was 21-years-old Brendan Devlin, of 4 Mont Prospect Park, Clontarf, Dublin, who pleaded guilty to breaching the peace by being abusive and threatening towards Garda Gormally at Terryland Park, Galway, on 7 April last. He also pleaded guilty to not giving his name and address to the Garda when asked to do so.

Garda Gormley said Devlin ran onto the pitch to celebrate when Bohemians scored a goal and he asked him to refrain from doing so again during the rest of the match.

Devlin told the garda to "f**k off" and ran off up to the stand. Garda Gormley followed him into the stand, where Devlin refused to give him his name and address. The garda explained to him that he could be arrested if he did not give his details, to which Devlin replied, "If you lay a f**kin' hand on me, you are getting a f**kin' slap."

Garda Gormally said he noticed Devlin was foaming at the mouth as he held his fist up to his face while threatening to hit him. The garda told Judge Mary Fahy he didn't feel making an arrest was safe at that point, so he left the stand area. He returned a short time later to speak to Devlin again but he was still aggressive and refused to give his details.

Garda Gormally said he was then surrounded by between 50 and 100 Bohemian fans who started chanting, egging Devlin on. Devlin finally gave his name and address to the Garda Gormally but, when the garda advised him that such aggressive behaviour could land him in court where he could be fined, Devlin continued to act aggressively. "I left the scene because I felt it was not safe to execute an arrest at that time due to the number of Bohemian fans," Garda Gormally told the court.

Devlin's father who accompanied his son to court, told Judge Fahy he was shocked at his son's behaviour and he blamed a combination of alcohol and being egged on by the other fans for what happened. The man said his son had stopped going to football matches because that was where he had been drinking and since this incident he had not taken a drink at all.

The teenager said he had apologised to Garda Gormally for his bad behaviour.

Judge Fahy fined him €400 for being abusive to the garda and fined him €300 for refusing to give his name, while a third change of refusing to obey the directions of the garda were taken into account.

Comments (2) »

Teenager
written by Pat, October 21, 2009

When did 21 year olds become teenagers?

What happened to common sense and professionalism?
written by Sentient, October 21, 2009

Seems a spot of commons sense diplomacy and discretion would have solved the problem rather than pursuing someone into the stand, but that the thing was escalated because the young man used a naughty word. How petty.
Then he casually condemns other fans by accusing them of 'surrounding him' (and no one has seen fit to question that). If they were already in the stand, and he went into it, surely he was the active party? Did he want them to be good citizens and 'unsurround' him?

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