Prison for man who played IRA music and hurled racist abuse

Monday 18 September 2017

A man who blasted IRA-themed music in a café before hurling racial abuse at disgruntled customers has been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

68-year-old Daniel O’Connell had been drinking during the afternoon in March this year in Café Paraiso, New Street.

The Royal Court heard that he had been asked to leave the café, but began to play loud IRA-themed music on his iPad and speakers.

When customers outside asked him to turn it off, O’Connell began to swing his bag at them, before hurling racist abuse at them including a derogatory term in Portuguese. 

As another café patron approached and attempted to turn off the music themselves, O’Connell raised his fist and started swinging his arms, punching one man in the eye. 

The court heard that after a stumble due to his drinking, O’Connell continued his verbal tirade before threatening a customer, telling them that he had a knife as he reached into his pocket.

Pictured: The Royal Court, where the case was heard by Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith and Jurats Mike Liston OBE and Jane Ronge.

The Police arrived and arrested O’Connell, but didn't find a knife.

During the Court hearing, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, who sat with Jurats Liston and Ronge, heard that O’Connell had battled with a history of alcoholism. He was left a widower two years ago when his wife passed away, and that had “deeply affected his life.”

The Prosecution had sought a future order to bar O’Connell from establishments serving alcohol, but this was turned down because, “...the defendant’s life centres around going to public houses where he listens and plays music, which is his life interest.”

“To exclude him from going to public houses would have a disproportionate effect on him. Therefore after some debate we have decided, Mr O’Connell, not to exclude you from public houses or licensed premises, but you must take some responsibility for your actions and if you abuse the hospitality of pub landlords and offend through drink again, you may well find yourself back before a court and being excluded from what is clearly your life and you will only have yourself to blame,” Commissioner Clyde-Smith explained. 

While his offence normally wouldn’t have merited custody, the aggravating factor of racial abuse and O’Connell’s history of offending – 45 previous convictions – saw him handed three months’ imprisonment. 

“The Court will not tolerate racial abuse and we agree with the prosecution that a custodial sentence because of that racial element requires a sentence of imprisonment,” Commissioner Clyde-Smith concluded.