Man had knife at 5.54am ‘to gut mackerel’, Cork court hears

A 45-YEAR-OLD man used bricks to smash his way into a car and to break the window of an apartment and when caught with a knife shortly before 6am, he claimed that it was for gutting mackerel. 

He has been jailed for eight months at Cork District Court.

Sergeant John Kelleher said gardaí responded to a call to Baker’s Road, Cork, shortly before 5am on April 10, 2020, after the window of a parked car had been smashed. Officers checked the area and soon afterwards they found Jason Nagle, with an address at Chapel St, off Shandon St, Cork, sitting on the side of Harbour View Rd with a car radio in his possession and he could not account for it.

He then told gardaí he remembered breaking the window of a car with a rock. Just over two months later, at a similar hour, gardaí encountered him at 5.54am on June 26, 2020 on St Patrick’s Street.

Gardaí noticed that he had dry blood on his hand. “He was nervous and evasive when questioned about the dry blood. A knife was found in his possession. He said he had it for gutting mackerel,” Sgt Kelleher said.

“At 5.54am?” Judge Olann Kelleher asked.

The sergeant confirmed that gutting mackerel was the explanation Nagle gave for having the knife.

In a third incident involving Nagle around this time, the gardaí encountered him after he used part of a concrete block to break a window at an apartment at Coppergate, off Anglesea St.

The owner of the property said she saw a man outside wearing a dark cap and jacket. He was captured on CCTV and later identified as the defendant.

He was arrested in Cork City a short time later in a highly intoxicated condition.

Nagle had 93 previous convictions including 14 counts of causing criminal damage, two for burglary and 12 thefts.

Eddie Burke, defending, said the 45-year-old had asked for sentencing to be adjourned before Christmas. He has health difficulties and started drinking heavily when his child got sick.

Judge Kelleher imposed a sentence of eight months on Nagle for his latest crimes.