A man from Donegal who menacingly warned to force his mother’s teeth down her throat has received a one-year imprisonment. The man facing the charge, Gavin Mitchell, who is 46 years old and without a permanent home address, is currently being held at Castlerea Prison. Mitchell was brought before Letterkenny District Court where he was accused of several thefts, wielding a hammer in public, and violating a protection order.
Mitchell confessed to five instances of theft. The sessions in court disclosed how Mitchell pilfered different sums of money, varying from €10 to €200, along with alcohol, in the period from January 2021 to June 2023. The incident of October 9, 2023, at Lower Main Street in Letterkenny, revealed the alarms about Mitchell wielding a hammer and posing threats to others, infringing the Section 9 (5) Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act of 1990.
Mitchell further confessed to stealing a mobile phone, worth €300, and a bottle of alcohol from Tesco located in the Letterkenny Shopping Centre. The court was also informed that he violated a protection order thrice at Windmill View, Letterkenny.
Mitchell had allegedly come to his mother’s house in a state of heavy inebriation and behaved aggressively, warning her to be quiet or risk having her teeth forced down her throat. On a separate instance, Mitchell’s mother reported to the police regarding her son’s aggression and his threat of using a hammer.
The court was told that Mitchell carries a history of 67 past convictions, most of them being theft-related. His legal representative, Mr Frank Dorrian, mentioned to the court about Mitchell’s ongoing struggle with addiction since his teenage years.
“My client’s sibling tragically lost his life in this year’s first month from a rooftop fall,” was the statement. “His brother’s demise has had a deep effect on my client, as they were both homeless. They made a multi storey car park and even the tubular slides in a playground their place of rest at times. My client admits to all the crimes committed, ascribed to their impoverishment. He was also consuming an artificial drug known as Spice.” Issuing the verdict, Judge Eiteain Cunningham handed down a six-month prison term to Mitchell under Section 33 of the Domestic Violence Act as he broke a protective order. Furthermore, a consecutive six-month sentence was handed for a theft offence.