Cork man remanded for refusing to leave home of woman who gave him lift

A man who hitched a lift to Kinsale in the early hours of the morning with a woman he had never met, and then refused to leave her parents’ home, has pleaded guilty to two public order offences in the district court.

Sergeant Eimear O’Connell told Bandon District Court that gardaí in Kinsale received a call at 3.30am on June 6, 2025, to attend a private residence in the town.

The homeowner said an unwelcome stranger had arrived at the house with their daughter, who had returned from a night out in Cork City.

The court was told the woman had encountered 37-year-old John Mulligan, with an address at Millrace Mews, Chapel St, Bandon, walking along the road as she was driving home and she had given him a lift.

REFUSED TO LEAVE

However, when he arrived at the family home, he refused to leave when asked to do so by the woman’s parents.

When gardaí arrived, Mulligan told them he had “walked halfway from Kinsale to Cork and rang 999 four times looking for a spin”.

Mulligan then “became irate” and demanded gardaí give him a lift to Bandon.

When he was told this was not possible, he said he would go to the door of Kinsale Garda Station and urinate on it. At 4am, Mulligan began banging on the door of the station and shouting. He was taken to Bandon Garda Station, where he continued to behave in an aggressive manner.

He was charged with being drunk in public, and threatening and abusive behaviour. The court was told Mulligan had two previous convictions, one for drink-driving in 2011, and one for holding a mobile phone while driving in 2018.

Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said his client wanted to apologise for his behaviour and said the father-of-two was an apprentice electrician.

Mulligan told Judge Joanne Carroll he was “one million per cent wrong”.

Judge Carroll remanded Mulligan to April 17 and suggested he gather €500 for the court poor box.

This article is funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme