A 37-year-old man who threatened to kill a psychiatric nurse after he was caught selling heroin to a patient in a psychiatric ward in a Cork hospital has been jailed for three years.
Kenneth Duggan pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal to threatening to kill or cause serious harm to psychiatric nurse John Boland at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) on November 14th 2015.
Sgt Katrine Tansley said Duggan had voluntarily admitted himself to St Michael’s Psychiatric Ward at MUH at the time but another patient complained he was selling heroin to a fellow patient.
Mr Boland and other staff member went to speak to Duggan about the complaint but he reacted angrily and became aggressive.
"Kenneth Duggan told John Boland that it was all his fault and that he never forgot a face and he would get him when he left work or if he met on the street and he gestured with a stabbing action," said Sgt Tansley.
Sgt Tansley said that Mr Boland made a complaint to gardaí as he was concerned about Duggan.
Gardaí interviewed Duggan and he accepted he was involved in an aggressive altercation in St Michael’s Ward, but could not remember what exactly happened.
Defence barrister Niamh Stewart said Duggan, from Ballinderry Park in Mayfield, was a chronic heroin addict and he had since apologised to Mr Boland for his behaviour.
Det Sgt Denis Lynch had earlier told the court that Duggan was caught by Garda Gary Purtill with 13 deals of heroin worth just over €1,000 on Cathedral Road in Cork on September 30th 2015.
Judge Sean O Donnabhain said that he took a very serious view of the threat to kill Mr Boland which arose after he sought to stop Duggan selling heroin to other patients in St Michael's Ward.
"This is a very serious matter - he had admitted himself to the Mercy Hospital and then while he was there on the ward he began dealing drugs to other patients on the same ward.
“And then when he was confronted about it, he made a conscious and deliberate threat to a staff member that he would get him, accompanied by this stabbing gesture.”
The judge sentenced Duggan to three years in prison and 18 months concurrent for possessing heroin.
