Longford graffiti incident was motivated by a desire to ‘protest’

A Longford man who was previously jailed for eight and a half years for placing a bomb on a bus during the late Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland had charges in relation to graffiti dismissed at the recent sitting of Longford District Court after he made a contribution to Longford Tidy Towns.

Seventy-three-year-old Donal Billings, of 2 Fee Court, Longford, appeared before the recent sitting of Longford District Court charged with defacing a wall belonging to Longford County Council with graffiti.

The court heard the incident took place at Fee Court on August 9, just seven months after Mr Billings was released from prison after he was jailed in December 2016 for eight and a half years by the Special Criminal Court.

Sgt Enda Daly told the court that gardaí while on routine patrol came across the accused walking away from a wall with a paintbrush and a tub of paint in hand.

At a previous sitting of the court, Judge Bernadette Owens was informed that gardaí later arrested Mr Billings and brought him to Longford garda station for questioning, where he was later charged.

When asked as to what Mr Billings had allegedly daubed on the wall, Sgt Daly said: ‘No drugs, no drink, no damage.”

Following a guilty plea by the defendant, Judge Owens accepted jurisdiction. The court was told the accused had nine previous convictions to his name, the most recent of which was recorded at the non-jury Special Criminal Court on December 15, 2016.
They included convictions for offences under the Criminal Law Act of 1976 of knowingly making false reports tending to show that an offence had been committed and possession of explosives in suspicious circumstances.

That came after Mr Billings was found guilty in November 2016 of the unlawful possession of an explosive substance at Longford railway station car park on May 16, 2011.

He was also found guilty of making a false report within the State on May 16, 2011, that bombs had been placed at Busáras in Dublin and at Sinn Féin’s headquarters.

In defence, solicitor Bríd Mimnagh said while Mr Billings’ actions were motivated by a desire to “protest” at the rise in anti-social behaviour that had been taking place just yards from his front door.

“It’s common knowledge that on a continuing basis there is alcoholic drinking going on down there and drug abuse and recently a lot of rubbish was left there.

“Mr Billings wanted to protest at this and was at his wits’ end at this unruly behaviour and he took it upon himself to write this on the wall,” she said.

Ms Mimnagh was equally at pains to stress Mr Billings never shied away from admitting his involvement and “stood his ground” when gardaí came across him.

The court was told Mr Billings was not aggressive and co-operated with gardaí throughout his arrest and subsequent detention.

Delivering her verdict, Judge Owens said while the court had to be mindful of Mr Billings’ “very significant” previous convictions, it equally had to decide on the “proportionality” of any penalty it chose to hand down.

In giving Mr Billings credit for his early guilty plea, Judge Owens said the most appropriate sanction in those circumstances was to adjourn the case for a period of time to allow the accused to tender a cash donation to Longford Tidy Towns.

She ordered Mr Billings to return with €250 to the court for the purposes of disposing of the case.

The case was dismissed under the Probation Act after the defendant handed over that sum of cash last week.