Fisherman jailed after gouging ‘dirty big scratch' into garda's car
A FISHERMAN who thought he had a 'God-given right' to park in a public space outside his seaside home has been jailed for using a garden hoe to gouge a 'dirty big scratch' into an off-duty garda's car.
Vincent Hendy (47) deliberately scraped the car that turned out to belong to an officer who had stopped off to take his children for ice-cream nearby, a court heard.
Hendy, a father-of-four, had denied causing the damage but Judge John Hughes found him guilty at Dublin District Court and sentenced him to five months in prison, with another month suspended.
The victim, Mick O'Shea, said he parked his car at East Pier, Howth, on May 24 last year to bring his three children to an ice cream shop. There was a traffic cone in the parking spot but it was a public space, so he moved it and placed it on the footpath.
He returned an hour later, drove 20 metres to the public toilets and when he got out he noticed a scrape 'the full width' of the driver's side door, 'like someone had used a sharp object to gouge it.' The damage, valued at €450, had not been there before and he had no collision, he said.
Barrister Paul Larkin Coyle, defending, asked him why CCTV showed he did not react when he returned to his car. Mr O'Shea said he had not noticed the damage at that stage and he denied that the damage could have happened after he drove off.
The court heard the footage was from Hendy's security camera and gardai got it when they went to search the house on June 12.
Garda David Kernan said he was accompanied by council dog handlers because the accused had 'multiple German Shepherds," and the public order unit was also there 'on standby if needed to maintain safety.'
Mr Larkin Coyle said it was a 'significant garda response" for a criminal damage case and Hendy maintained he was aggressively confronted, which Garda Kernan denied.
Vincent Hendy
The garda said the CCTV showed the accused, carrying a large gardening hoe, was the only person who passed the car in the time it was damaged.
Hendy denied any physical interaction with the car. He told the court he was returning from shopping in Woodie's, parked 'in the middle of the road' and retrieved his items from his own car. He saw Mr O'Shea's car and 'walked past, that is all.' He denied that he 'angled the hoe' at the car and said he would have felt it if he made contact.
He said he put a traffic cone outside his house because he wanted to keep his car within view of his CCTV, due to 'anti-social behaviour' and cars getting damaged. He denied having a 'grievance' about anyone moving the cone, saying 'people do it every day.'
'I don't think he was reckless at all, I think it was intentional, I think he meant to scrape the car,' Judge Hughes said, convicting Hendy. 'I think you perfectly intended to do this because as far as you are concerned, this is your parking spot and you put out the cone because you think you have a God-given right to park in that spot. This has nothing to do with public order out on the street.'
The accused decided 'for whatever reason' he would damage the car, the judge said.
'Mr O'Shea was simply going for an ice cream with his kids and that day was ruined when he came back to find a dirty big scratch down the side of his car," he added.
Recognisances were set in the event of an appeal.
Vincent Hendy
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