A man will be sentenced in July for making a “bogus” emergency call about a gang member being shot at a Dublin city block of flats, a court has heard.
Detective Sergeant Brendan Casey revealed that 11 Garda units, a fire brigade truck and an ambulance went to the scene after Brendan Treacy (35) made the crank call from his mobile phone.
Treacy reported that a gangland member had been shot at Peadar Kearney House, Railway Street, Dublin, and that a black Toyota Avensis car had been seen leaving the area.
He later answered his phone to gardaí, told them where he was and admitted making the call had been a “moment of madness” while “completely wasted” on tablets and vodka.
Treacy, of Jamestown Park, Ratoath, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report at an unknown location in Dublin 1 on August 23th, 2017. His 40 previous convictions include theft, road traffic and drugs offences at District Court level.
The court heard the emergency response teams remained at the scene for 24 minutes before the operation was called off.
Det Sgt Casey told Tom Neville BL, prosecuting, that a mixture of Garda units, including armed and ordinary uniformed members, had attended.
He said the call was linked to Treacy and he agreed to meet gardaí a short time later.
He described in interview getting into a verbal dispute with a man after he had gone to city centre flats to buy tablets.
He claimed the man said to him: “Have you ever been f**ked off a balcony? You will be in five minutes”.
‘The rest was a blur’
Treacy then said he broke his own toe kicking a railings and that the man threatened to shoot him in the back of the head.
He told gardaí “the rest was a blur” and he must have picked up his phone as he ran away.
He said he did not know why he placed the call, but that it could have been because he had taken 30 tablets and vodka and the man had threatened to shoot him.
Det Sgt Casey said Treacy told him he was deeply ashamed and denied making the call to test police response time.
The detective agreed with Justin McQuade BL, defending, that it could have been a “bizarre way of going about attracting gardaí to the area”. He agreed Treacy was not involved with any of the people mentioned in the call.
Treacy told Mr McQuade that since the incident he has detoxed from tablets and he is also methadone and heroin-free. He said he no longer carries a phone “because I don’t trust myself with it”.
He said he hoped for a place at a residential treatment centre to come off cocaine. He told Judge Martina Baxter he was addressing his addiction issues in stages.
Judge Baxter agreed to adjourn the case to see if Treacy can access treatment, but warned him that it “doesn’t behove citizens in a democratic society to act like that”.