A 64-year-old woman who slapped and terrorised a 12-year-old boy in the street was fined £200 and ordered to stay away from Eyre Square, Galway, when she appeared before Galway District Court yesterday.
Rita Leonard, of Tonemace, Corrandulla, was preaching and handing out leaflets at Williamgate Street, Galway, last Saturday morning when she ran after a group of children. She managed to grab a 12-year-old boy and was seen hitting him across the face and pushing him against a wall.
Garda Frank Broderick, who witnessed the incident, said Leonard was screaming at the boy as she shook him. He said he arrested Leonard, who continued to shout abusive language.
The boy was still afraid, and his parents did not want him to go through the ordeal of having to give evidence.
Leonard shouted at the garda in court and blessed herself on numerous occasions. She said he was telling lies and she had been wrongfully arrested and detained while trying to make a citizen's arrest. She said she had written to the Garda Commissioner to complain and would sue the garda.
She claimed the child and his friends had been taunting her for two hours and she chased after them when one of them hit her on the head with a bottle. She claimed they had been trying to sell drugs to her.
Leonard insisted that the garda look her in the eye but he refused, saying he had seen enough of her already.
Leonard told Judge John Garavan she had managed to keep law and order in Eyre Square single-handed for some time. "You can see me any night making four or five arrests in Eyre Square," she said.
Judge Garavan said he was concerned for her safety in Eyre Square. "If you are acting as a sole vigilante saving Galway from itself you could be assaulted by somebody and hurt," he said.
He accepted that Garda Broderick had acted properly in arresting her. She was not entitled to arrest or terrorise the boy.