A 21 year-old Dublin man who was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment at Monaghan District Court on Monday told Judge Sean Martin McBride that if he was sentenced to jail in Dublin his “Life would be in danger”

Owen McDonagh from No 6 Billy Shelley Park Finglas Dublin 6 , who has a number of previous convictions for theft and drug offences pleaded guilty to the theft of over €20 of petrol from a Topaz filling station in Coolshanagh Monaghan on the 15 of October in 2009 after he drove away from the station without paying.  However the court heard that Monaghan female Garda Stephanie McDaniel’s stopped McDonagh at a border checkpoint on Wednesday the 19^th of May this year and recoginized him from C.C.T.V. of the incident obtained from the filling station.  Judge McBride recommended to the Inspector in the court Alan Cunningham that Officer McDaniel’s be “Commended for her fine police work in the case”

However Mr. McDonagh through his solicitor Damien Rudden told the court that his father lies seriously ill in a Dublin hospital after being shot in Finglas on the 15^th of July this year and if he was jailed his life would be in danger.

However Judge McBride said that this was a matter for the prison Governor and the Garda Commissioner and also denied a request that McDonagh  go to Mountjoy prison as the Judge believes “Wheatfield is a more secure prison” The Judge added “I am not going to tie the hands of a prison Governor or the Gardai, it is tragic to hear this mans father is seriously ill by  criminals who think they can take human life but the only 1 who can take human life is Our Lord”.

The Judge also recommended that Owen McDonagh, a married man with a 14 month old daughter receives counseling for various problems in prison. Cash bail of €1,000 was set in the case of an appeal but the Judge ordered that McDonagh be “Immediately taken into custody”