“Jesus saves” was the message on a poster displayed by a man preaching outside Athy District Court as people waited for it to open on an icy morning.
Many of the more than 80 matters in Judge Desmond Zaidan’s busy list in the Co Kildare court on Tuesday raised dilemmas to challenge any aspiring saviour.
The District Courts are the lowest but busiest tier of the Irish courts; it is here that more than 80 per cent of all litigants are exposed to the justice system. About a third of the State’s judges sit in the District Courts, which handle hundreds and thousands of cases every year.
A day in Athy Courthouse shows the variety of cases heard at District Court level.
Trump-Zelenskiy clash ‘very unsettling’, says Taoiseach ahead of White House trip
Teenager and man (20s) killed as car hits gable wall in Donegal crash
Life without children: ‘I’d want the investment my mother had, but I don’t have it in me. I don’t have the grá for it’
Plans to base combat jets at Shannon airport at annual cost of €100m
On Tuesday a young burglar who stole laundry pods from a supermarket last November told the judge he did not know how to use a washing machine. The 19-year-old was previously before the court over a trespass incident in March 2024 where he got locked into a shop while allegedly attempting to burgle it and called gardaí at about 4am to rescue him.
He was placed on a six months' peace bond last January relating to the trespass charge.
On Tuesday, his solicitor Jacqui McManus asked the judge to “give him another chance”, saying he had not come to Garda attention since November and had said he would stop his criminal activity. He received a weekly €115 social welfare payment and hoped to do a training course, she said.
This was “not a victimless crime” as costs incurred by businesses trying to prevent theft were passed on to consumers, the judge said.
“If I jail him, will that assist society?” he asked.
He said he had sympathy for the man – “the adults in his life are not really leading by example” – but he still knew right from wrong and was not to think he was “untouchable”.
“Seriously – come on,” the judge urged him. Putting the matter back for the man to participate in a restorative justice programme, he warned that if his participation was not “wholehearted”, he would be brought back before the court and could face jail.
In another case before the court, a man admitted driving his BMW car at a speed of 178kph in a 120kph zone and was disqualified from driving for two years.
He had apologised to the court and his solicitor, Seamus Taaffe, asked the judge not to disqualify him on various grounds, including that his client had no previous convictions, was working full-time and had children.
It had been a Sunday morning, he had just returned from a holiday abroad and had not been focused on his speed but had been preoccupied with one of his children being ill, Mr Taaffe added.
[ Drivers caught speeding could be sent on re-education courses under new proposalsOpens in new window ]
The judge said speed killed and the number of people who died on Irish roads was higher than the numbers murdered or who died as a result of assaults.
When the man said he did not realise his speed, the judge said he did not believe him.
“It was not the first time you have broken the speed limit; it was the first time you were caught,” said the judge.
This was dangerous driving and the court had to “send a message”. It was “a close call”. He would not jail the man but he would put him off the road for two years and fine him €750.
“Speed kills – no ifs, no buts,” Judge Zaidan said.
While dealing with some other cases under road traffic legislation, the judge said the existing laws were inadequate to deal with repeat offenders.
Those included a man described as the main carer for his child with special-care needs. He was disqualified in 2013 from driving for 40 years, disqualified again in 2021 for 15 years and was before the court on charges including driving with no insurance. His counsel said the man was now drug free, was sorry and was seeking leniency.
The mother’s solicitor said there had been a ‘great improvement’ with the ‘only slip-up’ being as a result of a family wedding. When the judge remarked that a wedding meant missing a day, the mother said: ‘We make a week of it’
Imposing a six-year disqualification order and a nine-month bond to keep the peace, the judge said he believed there must be an element of mandated sentence for repeat offenders. His instinct was to jail this man but, he asked: “What is the point?”
The case of a homeless woman with mental health issues charged with alleged theft of €48.30 was adjourned. No violence was involved in the alleged offence, the court heard.
In an application by Tusla, the State’s child and family agency, under the Education and Welfare Act, the judge said the situation of a girl, now aged 15 and out of school for about two years, was “damning” of the State.
The girl’s mother said they were Travellers; she herself left school aged 11, was now in her 40s and could not read or write. She made sure her children could read and write but, after her daughter finished primary school, she did not wish to go to second level, she said.
“It wasn’t my choice; it was hers,” the woman said.
Solicitor Patrick Cagney, for Tusla, said the mother had engaged positively, the girl’s attendance had improved “a bit” and that she had missed 15 out of the last 65 days.
An educational welfare officer said the girl had also had attendance issues at primary school; a June 2022 referral over her attendance had been put on a waiting list. There were difficulties making contact with her, she was first allocated an educational welfare officer in March 2023 and was getting learning support, the officer said.
The judge said he understood why the girl, having missed two years, had not wished to go back to school because she was so far behind that she would be “lost in the system”.
“That is damning of the State; she is clearly vulnerable,” he told the officer, stressing his criticism was of the State, not the educational welfare officer.
The girl’s mother said her daughter was enjoying school more since getting extra help but wanted to leave school at 16. The mother’s solicitor said his client had adhered to advice given and there had been a “great improvement” with the “only slip-up” being as a result of a family wedding.
When the judge remarked that a wedding meant missing a day, the mother said: “We make a week of it.”
Putting the matter back to October for review, the judge urged the mother to encourage her daughter to stay at school or, if the girl insisted on leaving at 16, to pursue a course or training.
“If educated, she can do very well,” he said. “One day, there may even be a judge from a Traveller background. Why not?”
In a family law case, a man admitted breaches of four orders obtained by his former partner under the Domestic Violence Act in 2023. One breach arose after he tracked his former partner down to a women’s refuge; others involved slapping her and posting a video on social media using a word which translated as “bitch”.
Judge Zaidan put the matter back for sentence, telling the woman she could provide a victim impact statement if she wished. Noting that she alleged further incidents, he said she could raise those with gardaí and any concerns she had would be addressed at the sentencing hearing.
While dealing with several cases involving offences under the Public Order Act arising from excessive consumption of alcohol, the judge asked a Garda inspector if he was correct in estimating that about 40 per cent of Garda time was taken up dealing with “drunken fools”. The inspector said he estimated it was more than 40 per cent and agreed with the judge that gardaí could use that “valuable” time for investigation of serious crime.
One man in his 20s was so intoxicated that he had no memory of behaving aggressively in the early hours of the morning on Leinster Street, Athy, and calling the garda who arrested him a “pr**k”. The man apologised in court and his solicitor said he was not drinking now.
If the garda involved had a body cam, he would play it “so you could see yourself making a fool of yourself”, the judge told the man. Imposing a €500 fine, he told the man to get a job or skill and “stop coming before me” or he could face jail.
Another man, who was put in a Garda cell because he was so intoxicated he could not walk, was fined €500. He had five previous convictions under the Public Order Act.
Adjourning a different case, Judge Zaidan noted the defendant had drug issues and had first appeared before him aged 12. Asked what age he was now, the man said he was 32.
'I've broken a needle in my arm while injecting' - the drug users at the first Supervised Injection Facility
The man, who is receiving methadone treatment, said he wanted to be placed in a drug treatment centre. If the State would provide proper in-house addiction treatment facilities, he would remand the man in custody for that purpose, the judge told him.
The options for offenders with addiction issues now are in the community or prison and, as soon as they are released, they “fall off the wagon”, he said. Until the State provides facilities and a regime where health professionals decide if a person is fit for release, “we will have repeat offenders”, he said.
“The State has to lead by example.”
“Addiction is a life sentence,” he told the man. “Whether you are found guilty or not guilty, there is no punishment I can impose on you that you haven’t already imposed on yourself.”
