Man (24) gets suspended sentence for threatening to slit garda’s throat

A father-of-two who threatened to slit a garda’s throat and “smash her face” has received a fully suspended sentence.

Corrie Grimes (24) initially denied making a threat to kill or cause serious harm to the garda at Ferrymans Crossing, North Dock, Dublin 1 on February 28, 2017 and told gardaí­ the allegation was “a load of bollox”.

However, he later pleaded guilty and wrote a letter of apology to the garda, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Judge Melanie Greally previously placed Grimes on a 12 month probation bond.

Passing sentencing on Wednesday, Judge Greally said the offence had a very serious effect on the victim. She said that she took into account that the accused has two young children with his partner.

Judge Greally sentenced Grimes to 18 months imprisonment, but suspended the entirety of the sentence on strict conditions, including that he follow all directions of the Probation Service for 12 months.

On a previous sentencing date, Garda Ciaran Harford told Dean Kelly BL, prosecuting, that he was on duty in a marked patrol car on Sheriff Street in Dublin with a female colleague on the day when they got a radio call for help from another garda.

They arrived at Ferrymans Crossing to see their garda colleague putting a young man they knew as Jordan Grimes, a cousin of the accused, into a patrol car. Their grandmother, Anne Grimes, was present.

The court heard that Corrie Grimes came up to the patrol car, red-faced and extremely angry, with his fists clenched, shouting aggressively to the female garda in the car.

“I’m going to kill you, I’ll slit your f***ing throat. I’ll smash your face in, I’ll get you one day,” Grimes shouted, using the garda’s first name.

His grandmother was pushing Grimes back and saying, “stop threatening her, you’ll get arrested.”

Five hours later, Grimes, of Royal Canal Court, Cabra, presented himself at Store Street Garda Station but denied making any threats.

“I got a call to say my little cousin was getting kilt (sic) by the guards and I just seen a load of guards outside my house and my gran screaming,” he said.

“I just saw the state my nanny was in and I got annoyed, it’s all natural,” he said.

Grimes admitted he had been red in the face and that he had called the gardaí­ “scumbags”, but accused the female garda of “talking shite”.

He denied using her first name and said he only knew her as “Barbie”, which he said was the garda’s nickname locally.

“I just snapped because of the state of me granny, she’s 66 and she was out in the street in her pyjamas and her glasses off, I didn’t threaten anyone, that’s bollox,” Grimes said at first.

Grimes has 11 previous convictions of which nine are for drugs offences.

Feared

In a victim impact statement read out in court on behalf of the female garda, she said she had been a garda for 11 years but that was the first time she had met with an incident where she did not know what to do.

“There was no doubt in my mind that I would have been assaulted or seriously hurt if I’d got out of the car or got any closer (to Grimes),” the garda said.

She added that she had feared for her own safety and that of her garda colleague and that since the offence had become more cautious and always locked the doors of the patrol car when she was in it.

The garda said she found the incident “offensive and quite humiliating” as there had been a large number of local residents watching, and she felt undermined in the course of her duties.

She said Grimes had never apologised, nor would she believe that any apology from him was genuine.

Garda Harford told Judge Greally that there had been no contact between Grimes and the garda since and agreed that there had been “no real substance” to the threat.

Kenneth Kerins BL, defending, said his client had pleaded guilty and fully accepted that what he said to the garda was despicable and unacceptable.

The court heard Grimes is in recovery from drug addiction and in full employment.

Letters were handed into court from Grimes’ addiction counsellor, his employer, his partner and the mother of his two-year-old child.

Mr Kerins said Grimes had started a residential drug treatment course but had not completed it over an incident where he and some other residents had stolen biscuits.

Judge Greally said Grimes had a highly dysfunctional relationship with the authorities and that his behaviour was “nothing short of disgraceful”.

She accepted that he appeared to be making efforts at rehabilitation and ordered a probation report to determine whether his efforts are genuine.