A man who daubed red paint on the front wall, office doors and window of the constituency office of the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, was fined €200 at Roscrea District Court yesterday.
Gillies McBain, Crannagh Castle, Templetuohy, Co Tipperary, appeared in court on charges of causing damage to Mr Smith's office on March 22nd.
McBain pleaded not guilty to the charge but said evidence given by gardaí at a previous hearing on March 27th last was "proper and correct".
During the sitting of Roscrea District Court on March 27th, Ms Bernadette McGinn, who works in Mr Smith's constituency office, told the court she had gone to the office following a phone call and found red paint daubed about three feet either side of the door.
She phoned Mr Smith and told him what had happened, and he told her to contact gardaí. When they arrived McBain was sitting a few feet from the door of the office collecting signatures. There was an empty tin of paint beside him.
A garda asked McBain if he had thrown the paint and McBain replied, subsequently in a statement, that he had bought two tins of paint in a local hardware store on the day in question and spilled the contents of one on the door. He added that it was his intention to do the same with the second.
At yesterday's sitting, Judge Mary Martin said she had heard prosecution evidence at the previous sitting of the court and asked McBain, who was defending himself in court, if he wished to make a statement. The judge stressed that the statement could not be a political one because a court could not be used for those purposes.
McBain said he wished to defend himself, and there was a political element to his defence. He wanted to defend his case under international law, which involved him having the belief that the Minister for Defence was an accessory to war crimes.
The judge found him guilty and fined him €200. She said he was entitled to an appeal once one-third of a surety of €600 and an independent surety of €600 were lodged in cash within the next 14 days.