Tralee District Court has heard that a man who was in possession of ten knives while appearing in court, forgot he had them on him.
Antonin Lesko of 3 O’Donovan’s Court, High Street Killarney, was given a three-month sentence, suspended for two years, for being in possession of the knives at Tralee District Court at 12 noon on February 9th this year.
The court heard that 42-year-old Mr Lesko was in possession of an open pack of ten utility knife blades when he was searched at Tralee District Court in February this year.
The court was told that Mr Lesko has 13 previous convictions, mostly relating to theft and burglaries, and was out on bail at the time of the incident.
He was attending court on that day, February 9th this year, for a charge of burglary at the Arbutus Hotel in Killarney.
He is currently serving a custodial sentence for the burglary offence, and is due to be released on the 27th of this month.
Defence solicitor for Mr Lesko, Padraig O’Connell, said Mr Lesko was in gainful employment in February this year.
Judge Joanne Carroll asked why Mr Lesko would bring this open pack of knives into a courthouse.
Mr O’Connell said that Mr Lesko would have called these blades, “scrapers”, and used them for work to take stickers off windows.
Mr O’Connell told the court that Mr Lesko had been working that day, and forgot the knives were on him.
He said it was a very foolish thing for his client to do, given he knew he would be searched.
Judge Carroll said Mr Lesko had ten very threatening blades on him, and gave him a three-month sentence, suspended for two years.
Judge Carroll warned him that he should stay on the right side of the law, or the suspension on his sentence would be removed.
