Judge tells DPP ‘to get on her bike’

A judge has told a senior garda to tell the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Claire Loftus “to get her on bicycle” concerning directions for four alleged burglars.

At Ennis District Court, Inspector Tom Kennedy sought a further adjournment in the case against the four alleged burglars of a rural farmhouse in Ballyea, where a 95-year-old man was asleep last January.

Initially, two of the four were refused bail in the district court but all four, all with Limerick addresses, appeared in court on bail.

Inspector Kennedy sought the adjournment for the DPP to make directions in the case but, in response, Judge Patrick Durcan quipped, “Tell the DPP to get on her bicycle”.

Inspector Kennedy said the cases in respect of all four could be adjourned to Ennis District Court to April 25.

In the case, three members of the one family and a fourth man are charged with the alleged burglary of the O’Connor home at Tiermaclane last January.

The accused are Paul Kiely (30), of Glencairn, Dooradoyle; Patrick Woodland (43), and Edward Woodland (18), of Greenmount Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston and John Woodland (38), of Clarina Avenue, Ballinacurra Avenue.

As part of the investigation, gardaí have seized a number of mobile phones, while there was a garda surveillance operation in the area at the time.