Warned by judge to stay off drugs and alcohol
UPWARDS of €46,000 worth of damage was caused by two teenagers who went on a drink and drug fuelled destruction spree on the lands of a farmer in O’Callaghan’s Mills, county Clare. Limerick District Court heard that the teenagers, Christopher Keane, with an address at Derrymore East, O’Callaghan’s Mills, and Brian Duggan, from Rock Place, Carew Park, Limerick, both aged 19,
went to the home of Keane’s mother in O’Callaghan’s Mills on June 25, 2009, and engaged in heavy drinking, believed by investigating gardai to be also fuelled by the taking of drugs.
The two went to the neighbouring land of Jim McInerney, where they wrote off a tractor by crashing it into a milking parlour, caused damage to a Hyno truck as they tried to hot-wire it, and drove a second tractor into a diesel lorry, wasting over 2,000 litres of the fuel in the farm yard.
The pair also ransacked a campervan and a storage shed before writing off a Hitachi digger and breaking the patio doors of the house by throwing a cavity cement block through the window panes.
Following their rampage, a trail of property was left leading back to the Keane house on the neighbouring lands.
In court, the two said that they could not remember any parts of the incident, one that was said to have been of great embarrassment to Mrs Keane, who had recently moved to the area.
Both youths apologised to Jim McInerney for the damage caused and have accepted their responsibility, despite claiming a lack of knowledge of their actions.
The matter was adjourned until December 6 and both have been ordered by Judge Carroll Moran to stay off drugs and alcohol ahead of the next sitting.
