Drunken INLA man Paul ‘Jaws’ Kelly called gardai ‘idiots’ and demanded lift home

Kelly (58) became very abusive and had to be restrained by officers after failing to desist.

Dundalk District Court heard how 59-year-old Kelly, who previously served a four-year jail sentence for membership of an illegal organisation, demanded gardai drive him home in a squad car while he was highly intoxicated.

The well-known dissident Republican subsequently became very abusive and had to be restrained by officers after failing to desist, the court heard.

Garda Christopher Hennessy gave evidence that at 5.20pm he was on mobile patrol accompanied by two colleagues. They were stopped outside a residence.

He noticed a man walking towards the vehicle from behind.

This person went to the passenger side. He was clearly intoxicated and was holding on to the vehicle for support.

He demanded that the guards drive him home and on being informed they were not a taxi; the defendant called the two guards in the front ‘f***ing idiots.

When he saw the other officer in the rear he asked: ‘Who’s the s**t in the back?’

On two occasions, Garda Hennessy continued, Kelly was directed to leave and refused each time.

He again called the gardai ‘f***ing idiots’.

Warrant

The witness said he got out of the car and informed the defendant he was going to be arrested.

The defendant replied: ‘I will thump the head of you.’

Kelly became ‘highly aggressive’ and had to be restrained to the ground.

Kelly, of Cox’s Demesne, Dundalk, was convicted in his absence of three Public Order charges with a bench warrant issued over his failure to appear.

He was found guilty of using or engaging in threatening, abusive, or insulting behaviour or words, failing to comply with the direction of a garda and being intoxicated in a public place at Aisling Park on May 2 last.

Kelly, the court heard, had eight previous convictions.

The most high profile of these occurred in 2008 when Kelly was jailed for four years after he rammed a garda car with a vehicle, inside which there were bomber jackets with “Republican Socialist Movement Dundalk” on the back.

Paul Kelly, then aged 45, pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to membership of the INLA, an illegal organisation, on December 20 the previous year.

Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O’Sullivan from the special detective unit told the non-jury special court that father-of-five Kelly was seen driving a black Volkswagen Passat during a garda surveillance operation in Dundalk.

Members of the armed emergency response unit moved in on Kelly’s car, blocking the road with a patrol car with blue flashing lights.

Kelly rammed the garda car and both he and his passenger were arrested.

When officers searched the boot of the Passat, they discovered a large number of garda uniforms which had been stolen from the homes of force members in Waterford and Lucan.