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A CHEF TRIGGERED a security alert in Dublin Airport at the weekend by claiming he was armed and going to shoot someone, a court has heard.
The gun hoax occurred at Gate 106 in Terminal 1 yesterday afternoon after Portuguese chef Adriano Rocha, aged 42, missed two flights home.
Dublin District Court heard that Rocha was drunk and emotional when he made gun gestures and Gardaí were called after other passengers overheard his comment.
He was charged with giving false alarm contrary to section 43 Air Navigation and Transport Act, and pleaded guilty today.
Judge Treasa Kelly granted bail and once he surrendered his travel documentation he was released. She ordered him to bring €300 to his sentence hearing tomorrow.
‘Extremely erratic’ behaviour
Rocha, with an address at Qudtiro Estradas Sitiro, Dos Alamos, Gui Albuffire, Portugal, had just finished up a stint working in the west of Ireland and was trying to get home, the court heard.
In evidence, Garda Paul Murphy said Rocha was waiting at the departure gate “when he became extremely erratic”.
“He was getting up and down on his seat, on two occasions he made gestures with his hands like a gun,” Garda Murphy said.
He was heard saying “I have a gun, I’m going to shoot someone” in the lounge at the departure gate.
The garda said although the accused did not shout it, “people in his vicinity became alarmed” and Gardaí were called.
They rushed to the scene and confirmed he had no weapon.
Tired and emotional
Rocha’s reply to charge after caution was: “I didn’t threaten anyone.”
The chef, who had no prior criminal convictions, did not address the court.
Garda Murphy agreed with defence solicitor Michael Kelleher that Rocha had been seen drinking alcohol and had twice missed flights home. He intended to go to back to his mother.
He also had minor health difficulties and was “a bit tired and emotional”, the solicitor said. It had been a difficult period for him and he made it worse, Kelleher added.
It was accepted he was bewildered and acted erratically.
The solicitor asked the court to note his client had spent 24 hours in custody. He submitted that the issue was mental health and the garda had accepted alcohol was not the primary cause.
Adjourning the case, Judge Kelly said it was very serious for the people beside him in the departure lounge.
The offence can result in a fine of about €1,200 and a six-month sentence when dealt with at district court level.
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Amazing list of accomplishments for someone who is only 42
And to think, if her parents had stayed in Ireland, she could have risen through the ranks of the ICA to become a Branch Secretary or even the lady that does the roster for cleaning the church.
Congrats to her.
Will she condemn the US actions in the Middle East as terrorism?
Nope. She’s a cheerleader. She wouldn’t be where she is if she’d gone around telling the truth!
Sounds like a lot of this administration. Divide the country more and blame the republicans.
As a famous man once said, “Bush is gone”.
she called Hillary a monster :-) good appointment imo
This is the same woman that wrote a book entitled “A problem from hell”. The premise of the book was that the U.S. didn’t intervene enough in another countries affairs.
Correct. She is a major proponent of ‘humanitarian intervention’ – a vile euphemism.
Yeah like those terrible times when they intervened in Somalia to try and protect the food supply to millions of starving people or when they went into Bosnia and kosovo to stop ethnic cleansing. How dare they!
You obviously haven’t watch the film ‘The whistleblower ‘ starring Rachel Weisz . True story .
Peter — Can I interest you in a second-hand car?
Oh you’re hilarious Petr. Why don’t you entertain us with stories of the fantastic human rights record of your heros in Russia, China and North Korea then?
Anyone who actually read the book couldn’t but agree that the delays in intervention documented in the book were mistakes.
But if you’d also read other books and used your own head you might arrive at your own independent conclusion.
@ Peter: Somalia was a long, long way from an attempt to “protect the food supply to millions of starving people”. They didn’t even arrive at the right time or place to prevent the famine – the US (technically the UN, but the US were the largest contingent) went to Mogadishu, while the famine was close to the Kenyan border. (It was also mostly over by the time they arrived.) Instead, they ended up being drawn into the Somali civil war and, at one point, bombed a meeting of Somalis and killed 50 of them in an attempt to kill a Somali warlord. It was a utter debacle, and a terrible example to use if you’re trying to discuss the benefits of humanitarian intervention.
If the ruling classes of powerful states started acting altruistically to ‘save’ people here and there it would be the first time this has ever happened in human history.
Powerful states and other powerful entities tend to behave in a way that protects their own narrow interests. Morality and humanitarianism have literally no place in a discussion of international relations. Those who, against all evidence, believe otherwise or at best deeply naive.
maybe the US ad other countries UK, France etc had aleady intervened and that was parrt of progrma
problem^ sorry for typos
@Peter Gavin
the fact that other countries have a sbad o worse Human rights than USA is no argument to be joyous about the Human Rights in US – which are being removed with Patriot Act and NDAA – and increasing survelliance of the population .
As for interventions – the US record of interventions is disastrous both by themselves and by proxy from Vietnam , to Chile , Chagos Island , Phillipines , Iraq , Afgahistan . Its a long list – like all imperialists they leave behind death and destruction .
IF USA is so great – why dont they stay at home – they dont as they need to rob other countries to maintain their declining [ for the majotity ] standard of living .
taken from John pilgers site – latest article
”The “mess” left by George Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq is a sectarian war, the bombs of 7/7 and now a man waving a bloody meat cleaver in Woolwich. Bush has retreated back into his Mickey Mouse “presidential library and museum” and Tony Blair into his jackdaw travels and his money.
Their “mess” is a crime of epic proportions, wrote Von Sponeck, referring to the Iraqi Ministry of Social Affairs’ estimate of 4.5 million children who have lost both parents
full article
http://johnpilger.com/articles/from-iraq-a-tragic-reminder
”
I love the assumption that if you oppose the US’s foreign policies you must be an ardent supporter of Russia, China, North Korea etc. Can’t I hate everyone?
@aoife but the food aid was being delivered into the port of mogadishu and then intercepted by aidid and other warlords so that’s where the un forces needed to be
@ Jim I’m not trying to portray the US as some paragon of virtue and I disagree with some of their actions certainly but they are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t. Anytime they intervene somewhere they are condemned as imperialists but if they don’t then they are condemned as aloof and uncaring usually with jibes that there is no oil so they don’t care. Well there was no oil in Somalia or Bosnia or kosovo but they acted while Europe wrang it’s hands and did nothing. I remember the horror here when we saw the killing begin in kosovo but there were no protests against the Serbs. However the second The US started to bomb Belgrade there were demos from the usual left wing in Ireland against the Americans despite the fact that they were trying to stop the sort of ethnic cleansing seen in Bosnia. I just hate the knee jerk anti Americanism that is so common here despite them being a good friend to this country and all the ties of blood and culture
I love the assumption that if you oppose the USâs foreign policies you must be an ardent supporter of Russia, China, North Korea etc.
” They are condemned as being aloof ”.
Now that is one word I have never heard about US . They go in guns blazing – unlike the Chinese – who do business .
as for kosovo – again I refer to John Pilger – one of the few real investigative journalists left on Planet Earth http://www.labournet.net/balkans/9911/pilger.html
the fact that there is no oil – well its not always about Oil – but Power and control
What the heck did they do in Indonesia – the great eperiment in New World Order .
Why did they bomb Laos – the most bombed country on Planet Earth .one could give many examples of US inetrference .- Why do they train death squds – to do their killing in other coutries eg Honduras
the whole thing is sickening .They are a Terrorist nation with a Terrorist Foreign Policy – and this woman is now part of it – hardly something to be proud of .
Having it her way theyd probably have nuked the entire planet. But then they’d run out of people to terrorize.
Mistake thinking a government can’t be a terrorist. Pity the British didn’t wipe the Americans out centuries ago….
She wrote a great biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN diplomat who was killed in Iraq just after the invasion in 2003. Not sure if her support for the intervention in Libya is something to boast about though. Time will tell.
Her article about the Clinton Administration’s lack of reaciton to Rwanda genocide, published in The Atlantic, is very good. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/bystanders-to-genocide/304571/
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