RTÉ harassment trial to go to Circuit Court

The man who is charged with harassing Late Late Show host Pat Kenny and with crashing a car into an RTÉ building in Dublin, will…

The man who is charged with harassing Late Late Showhost Pat Kenny and with crashing a car into an RTÉ building in Dublin, will be tried in the Circuit Court.

Judge Miriam Malone has also ordered that Paul Stokes must first undergo a separate inquiry into whether he is fit to stand trial. She ruled that the charges against him were too serious to be dealt with at District Court level.

Penalties on conviction are higher in the Circuit Court.

Dublin District Court heard Mr Stokes (52), Montpelier Parade, Monkstown, Dublin, is charged with endangerment and criminal damage at the RTÉ studios on December 2nd by driving a car into the front door of the building. The cost of repairing the damage was €14,350, Judge Malone was told.

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Det Sgt William Power said there were also three charges of harassment against him, one involving an interruption of the Late Late Show onNovember 24th. The other two charges relate to placing posters on a wall outside Mr Kenny's Dalkey home on December 16th and on Christmas Eve.

The court heard last Monday that a psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, where Mr Stokes is being held, had declared him unfit to plead.

Judge Malone said the issue would have to be tried in the Circuit Court as jurisdiction had been refused to have the charges dealt with in the District Court. She set his bail at €3,000 with an independent surety of €9,000.

At the end of the hearing yesterday, Mr Stokes was allowed to address the court briefly. He said his 86-year-old mother was very ill having had a heart attack and he had been stopped from seeing her. He also repeated a previous statement claiming that 3,500 people were dying on the roads every day.