Prison sentence for assault on judge

A 20-YEAR-OLD man was yesterday sentenced to three months imprisonment for the assault of a District Court Judge in Waterford city 18 months ago.

Wayne Roche (20), of Harbour View at the Scotch Quay in the city, assaulted District Court Judge David Kennedy while he was out walking on March 19th, 2009.  Roche was also sentenced to six months imprisonment for the theft of a handbag at the Marina Hotel.

At the District Court in Waterford, Insp Tom Duggan told Judge Gerard Haughton that Mr Kennedy, who is a District Court Judge in Waterford, was “out for a walk” around the Scotch Quay area on the evening of the assault.

Inspector Duggan said: “He was approached by the defendant who shouted a lot of abuse at him and struck him on the arm.”

The gardaí was contacted and Roche was found to be in a “highly intoxicated state”, while Judge Kennedy suffered no injuries in the “random assault”.

On September 29th, 2009 Roche entered the Marina Hotel, also at the Scotch Quay, and stole a woman’s handbag. The guilty man, who has previous convictions for criminal damage and public order offences, also has drink and drugs problems, the court learned.Solicitor Rosa Eivers told Judge Haughton her client came from a “quite fractious background” with a “level of violence in the home for a very long time”.  Roche suffered from a “social phobia”, which was affecting his psychological health.

Roche told the court he was “very sorry”.   He said he “didn’t know who he [Judge Kennedy] was” and that he would go into rehabilitation and co-operate with the probation services, were he given a chance.