News

Drunk Man Fined $10K For Insulting SPF Officers

2019-07-26 , 10:00 pm

A Wise Old Man once said this.

“Everyone has different faces for different occasions. But there’s one face that’s quite possibly perceived as the worst:

“When you’re drunk.”

And while I absolutely detest agreeing with the old man, I’ve to side with him on this one. Alcohol does seem to bring out the worst in us.

And to support my driven hypothesis?

The article I’m about to present to you guys.

Man Who Was Previously Helped By S’poreans Fined $10K For Insulting Police Officers

According to The New Paper, Patraic Fionnbharr Walsh-Kavanagh was fined $10,800 yesterday (25 July) after pleading guilty to one count of drunkenness in a public place and two counts of using abusive words towards a public servant.

The British native, who previously crowdfunded around $200,000 for his premature baby and partner, had verbally abused police officers with almost a hundred expletives, following a night of drinking.

(Are there so many expletives in the English language?)

The incident reportedly occurred on the evening of 23 May.

According to reports, Walsh-Kavanagh, 27, had gone to a restaurant at Robertson Quay with his partner and friends that evening.

Downing five pints of beer at the restaurant, he then consumed two more alcoholic drinks at another bar. And at around 1:00 a.m. the next day, Walsh-Kave went to a Mohamed Sultan Road bar named Uncabunca, which he had patronised earlier that night. He was told, however, that it was closed.

Not to be dissuaded, he persisted, gesturing for more drinks and steadfastly refusing to leave. When he became rowdy, the bar’s assistant manager called the police, and two officers turned up. The Briton was arrested at approximately 1:16 a.m.

Expletives

As he did not have identification papers with him, the officers took him to their vehicle in an attempt to uncover his identity. And this was when Walsh-Kave launched a 20-minute expletive-heavy rant at the officers, right after he told them of his son’s premature birth.

Despite being warned that it’s an offence to insult a police officer, he continued abusing them.

The incident’s believed to have been captured on one of their body-worn cameras. Lest you might be wondering, however, it didn’t end there.

At around 2:00 a.m., he was taken to Tanglin Division Headquarters, where he was reportedly uncooperative as an officer removed his personal belongings for safekeeping purposes.

According to reports, Walsh-Kavanagh reportedly unleashed another wave of vulgarities for 20 minutes at the officer, which was also captured on a body-worn camera.

That’s a total of 40 minutes of expletives.

Sentence

During the hearing, the accused’s lawyer, Mr Sunil Sudheesan, pleaded for a lower fine as the incident was “out of character” for his client, who had purportedly been stressed by the birth of his premature baby.

“My client is very sorry and apologises to all the officers involved and the shop owner. He appreciates that police officers do not deserve his disgraceful behaviour,” he added.

The same sentiment, however, was not shared by District Judge Adam Nakhoda.

“I emphasise they (police officers) should never be abused. I say again it was absolutely deplorable, unrelenting, occurred for a sustained period of time. Whatever level of intoxication is in no way mitigating,” he said.

Walsh-Kavanagh was eventually tasked to cough up $10,800 as punishment.

Crowdfunding

Earlier this year in February, his partner, Ms Chloe Wilkinson, 30, had given birth while the couple were on a two-day layover here in Singapore.

The birth was a premature one, however, and the baby had to remain in intensive care. She was just 24 weeks pregnant at the time, and her baby reportedly weighed just 0.86kg.

The hospital fees were believed to have amounted to around $250,000, but the couple managed to strive through the crisis, having raised more than $200,000 from crowdfunding sites Give.asia and GoFundMe.

Many Singaporeans were thought to have made donations.

The funds were eventually used to settle the medical bills in question, and provide a way for the family to return to the United Kingdom.

Stress

As someone who’s supremely susceptible to the toxic levels of stress, I can testify that stress is one hell of a motherf*cker;

It really screws you up.

And when you add in alcohol, you pretty much just birthed the deadliest mix out there.

Nevertheless, as potent as the mixture might be, it still does not excuse the accused’s actions. And that’s why here’s a kind reminder, folks.

Destressing is fine. Alcohol is fine. But like everything else…

Moderation really is the key.