Cork District Court judge refuses to ‘plug’ mental health care gap by remanding man in prison 

A man who appeared to be unaware that his actions posed a danger to himself and others was released from prison by a district court judge.

The judge said that if the State was failing to provide some kind of mental health care: “I am not going to plug the gap for the State by remanding him in prison.”

James Spillane, aged 35, of no fixed address, was in custody since September 25 on three counts of causing criminal damage to parked cars in Cork city.

Yesterday at Cork District Court, when the accused appeared by video link from prison, there were concerns about his ability to plead guilty or not guilty to any charge due to mental health issues.

However, there was no psychiatric report as the defendant has only been in custody for a week.

Garda Jane Delahunty testified: “I believe he is a danger to the public, to the gardaí, and to himself. He is a vulnerable person. I do not believe he is aware of what he is doing.”

Eddie Burke, solicitor, said that the man would begin to answer a question but would quickly trail off into murmured comments that were not relevant.

Judge David Waters agreed with that description on the basis of his own engagement with the defendant.

The judge said he was going to strike out the three criminal damage charges, as he was not going to engage in “some kind of preventative detention”. He added that if psychiatric services were so bad that there was no provision for this man’s care, he was not going to remand him in custody as an alternative.

The criminal damage charges arose out of alleged offences at 10.30pm on September 2 at Kyrl’s Quay, Cork, when three cars were damaged. Garda Delahunty said when she spoke with the accused that night: “He was behaving in an erratic manner, rambling and not making any sense to the conversation. He was seeing people who were not present.”