Starving homeless man ‘gorged’ himself on cake after breaking into cafe: Chaotic lives of those before Letterkenny District Court

Behind the smooth stone exterior of Letterkenny’s state-of-the-art modern courthouse, the chaotic lives of some of the people appearing before the Co Donegal court are laid bare.
In one of four spacious wood-panelled courtrooms, Judge Éiteáin Cunningham heard about a homeless man with drug addiction issues who broke into a cafe and “gorged” on cake because he had not eaten in three or four days.
In an adjoining courtroom, Judge Deirdre Gearty granted safety orders to a brother and sister against each other after hearing they are struggling to live in harmony in their family home since it was transferred by their mother to the woman, with a right of residence for the man, who has an intellectual disability.
These were just some of the cases as full hearings resumed last Monday after the August break of the District Courts, the lowest but busiest in the Irish courts system.
There are up to 71 judges working in 23 District Court districts and the Dublin Metropolitan District. According to the Courts Service annual report for 2022, there were more than 466,000 incoming cases in the District Courts and 367,529 civil and criminal cases were resolved that year.
[ Inside Ireland’s District Courts: ‘If alcohol disappeared overnight, the courts could close’Opens in new window ]
In Letterkenny last week, a mother and baby were among those seated on wood-topped grey stone benches in a light-filled waiting area inside the courthouse. Operational since 2018, the building includes victim support rooms and an area designed for children, with soft furniture and toys.
Judge Cunningham dealt with a list involving some 50 defendants concerning alleged offences in different locations in Co Donegal. Most were public order and road traffic offences, but they also included alleged theft, burglary, criminal damage, possession of drugs and assault.
The judge adjourned various matters relating to Donegal County Councillor Frank McBrearty, with an address at Tullvinny, Raphoe, including charges of assault of another councillor at Donegal County Council offices in Lifford on a date in June 2022. Mr McBrearty wants the matters to be tried before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, and the case was adjourned for reasons including to have the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) set out her position on that.
A man in his 30s, with more than 60 previous convictions, admitted theft from different premises in Letterkenny on dates between 2021 and 2024, including a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of spirits from two supermarkets; €200 and a cash drawer from a retail premises; and a mobile phone, worth €300, from a car in the town.
Sgt Maurice Doyle said it was further alleged the man breached a safety order obtained by his mother.
Solicitor Frank Dorrian said his client’s background was “harrowing”; he became addicted to drugs in early adolescence, is homeless, and it was “a wonder” he survived some winters sleeping outside.
Most of his thieving was about trying to get alcohol or food, including a break-in to a cafe where he and another man gorged themselves on cake, having not eaten for three to four days, the court was told.
There were “few civilising influences” in the man’s life, but one was his mother, who would let him live with her if he was well-behaved – but then his demeanour would “unravel” and he would say something to cause annoyance or fear, Mr Dorrian added.
The man had not sought bail on the charges because he had “nowhere to live and no means of support”. He had decided the only form of refuge he could take was in prison and, having been there since July, was substance- and alcohol-free and had “more clarity to his thinking”.
The man is “destitute and very penitent, especially in relation to his mother, whom he knows has done her best for him”, the solicitor added.
Judge Cunningham sought a victim impact statement from the mother before finalising sentence, adjourned the case to Thursday and remanded the man in custody.
On Thursday, having been told the mother had declined to provide a victim impact statement, the judge imposed a one-year prison sentence, comprising six months for the safety order breach and six months for theft.
In another case, having been told a young man charged with having cocaine valued at €90 had no previous convictions and recently qualified as a nurse, the judge, stressing she was giving him just “one opportunity”, directed him to pay €200 to St Vincent de Paul.
The charity benefited by €100 in another case where a young man admitted a public order offence. Solicitor Rory O’Brien said his client was “genuinely sorry” over having “got caught up in too much alcohol” during the Summer Sessions festival in the town last August.
Alcohol featured in many cases, including that of a woman in her 40s arrested after being reported as intoxicated and acting aggressively in the town in November 2023. A woman garda who dealt with her at the Garda station was kicked in the stomach but was not injured, the court heard.
The woman, with 25 previous convictions, had experienced “unfortunate circumstances” and fully accepted her alcohol difficulties, her solicitor said. Directing a probation and welfare report, the judge said kicking a Garda in the stomach when she was trying to do her duties was “a type of behaviour that can’t be condoned”.
Intoxication featured in a public order charge against another man, with 35 previous convictions, mainly for similar offences. On a date in July 2023, he was arrested for his own safety due to allegedly being “highly intoxicated” and unsteady on his feet.
Solicitor Patsy Gallagher said his client regularly stood intoxicated in a green area on his own for hours at a time. “I don’t know who he is a danger to, no one but himself – he needs assistance.”
Judge Cunningham, who fined the man €50, said: “I’m aware of him and his circumstances. It’s unfortunate that he won’t get help.”
Donegal has experienced 13 road deaths so far this year but, while Monday was national “go-slow” day on the roads, several drivers demonstrated little adherence to that on the N14 road from Lifford on the Border with Northern Ireland to Letterkenny that morning.
Several cases before the judge under the Road Traffic Acts included that of a man charged in connection with an alleged hit-and-run offence in Ramelton in May 2023. Adjourned to November, the charges include failing to remain at the scene, damage to property and careless driving.
Another man charged with careless driving, failing to provide a blood urine specimen and having no insurance when stopped in Letterkenny on a date in late November 2019, also had his case put back.
Several cases involved not having insurance and/or a driving licence. A healthcare assistant admitted having neither when stopped in Letterkenny in December 2023. The woman bought the car just months earlier and had spent €1,000 in a fruitless attempt to remedy its mechanical problems, her solicitor said.
She now has another fully insured car, earns €450 weekly and needs her licence as she works in the community, he added. Given the special circumstances of the woman’s job, the judge said she would not disqualify her from driving, but fined her €200.
In the courtroom next door, a tearful woman who previously got an interim safety order under the Domestic Violence Act against her brother asked for it to be made permanent. He had separately obtained a safety order against her.
Both live in the family home, which their late mother had transferred to the woman, with a right of residence for the brother, who has an intellectual disability.
The woman, whose husband and child also live there, said relations with her brother and other siblings, who all live elsewhere, had deteriorated after the house was transferred to her some years ago. She and her brother had had loud arguments, and she was in fear of him on occasions.
“He can change so quick, especially when he’s drinking,” she told the court.
The man said he was complying with an agreed safety plan and had never, and would never, use violence against his sister or her family. His life had changed since the house transfer, and he was annoyed by his sister’s actions, including locking two rooms when she goes out.
Judge Gearty said this was a “very sad” situation, which she was sure the siblings’ mother never envisaged would happen. She was satisfied there were difficulties between brother and sister, and evidence of a “controlling nature” regarding the woman’s dealings with her brother. There were “justifiable concerns” to grant mutual safety orders for five years, she ruled.