NEW: The Judge Was With You—Until They Heard What You Did in Custody

How Garda Custody Behaviour Can Destroy Your Drink Driving Defence

You might have the best legal point under the sun. A procedural flaw. A timing issue. A missing caution. Something real. Something that wins cases.

But if you behave badly in Garda custody—if you scream, threaten, lash out, or spit abuse—you’ll be lucky to avoid jail.

Winning? That’s likely off the table.

It doesn’t matter who your solicitor is. It doesn’t matter how fair the judge is. I’ve never once seen a case survive that kind of behaviour.

"And the judge? They stop writing. They put their pen down.

They stare out the window. And that’s it.

They’ve mentally switched off. They’ve heard enough.

And they’ve already made their decision"

Judges Are Human. And Some Things Offend Their Morality.

I’ve seen it happen.

The Garda gives evidence. Calmly. Professionally. They start reading from their notebook—"The defendant called me X, Y and Z. Said they’d burn my house down. Had to be restrained. Shouted obscenities."

And the judge? They stop writing. They put their pen down. They stare out the window. And that’s it. They’ve mentally switched off. They’ve heard enough. And they’ve already made their decision.

They won’t say that out loud of course. But everyone knows. They’ll keep listening, sure. They'll let me make my legal argument.

But we both know what’s happened. I once saw a judge put his pen down halfway through a witness’s testimony, turn and face the window. He was smiling to himself, watching the sea gulls in the sky above.

In my own mind it was over.

And it was.

"In fact, every judge in the country

would have done the same.

Believe me when I say that"

The Optics Are Catastrophic

It doesn’t matter how technical or clever your defence is.

Judges don’t want to hear it when someone has behaved like a maniac in custody.

And it’s not just that they’re offended.

It’s that they can’t let someone win a case like that. Because of what it would say.

What message would it send to Gardai if a man who threatened or assaulted them walked out of court with a smile and a clean record?And what message would it send to the public?“I can behave however I want, and if I have a legal point, I’ll still get off.” 

That’s the perception.

And perception matters. Judges know this.

Let Me Tell You About a Real Case

I knew the solicitor. Good guy. Knows his stuff.

I also knew the judge—fair, thoughtful, the kind of judge you’d want if you were making a legal argument.

I read the article. I thought to myself: this looks like a winnable case.

Man was found asleep in his car. Drunk.

"You're in full damage control now.

You’re no longer fighting to win—

But to avoid jail"

Keys were in the ignition. Garda—female—wakes him up. Smells drink. Goes to arrest him for being drunk in charge. Then I read on. He fled from the Garda. Ran back to his car. Started searching for his keys.

Refused to get out. The Garda tried to physically restrain him. He pushed her. Screamed in her face. Had to be restrained. That was it.

I knew then why the judge had convicted. They had no choice.

In fact, every judge in the country would have done the same.

Believe me when I say that.

No Judge Can Let That Go

It’s not about being nice to Gardaí.

It’s about not handing the judge a reason to convict you—even when your legal defence might have worked.

Once you behave violently or abusively in custody, the court flips. The judge starts thinking, “I’m not having this”

And from that moment on, the whole mood shifts.

You're not arguing from a place of innocence anymore. You're in full damage control now.

You’re no longer fighting to win—But to avoid jail.

There Are Some Cases You Can’t Win

And that was one of them.

It was only because the solicitor was as good as he was that the man didn’t end up in prison. Because plenty of judges would have “sent him in” for a little while.

Not for the drink driving charge. For the behaviour. To send a message.

Nothing quite like sharing an overcrowded prison cell.

"When they convicted her the judge said to me:

“Address me on why I shouldn’t send your client

to Limerick Prison”.  

I once defended a woman who had been arrested for drink driving.

Her behaviour was anything but ladylike.

This is an extract from a Garda statement in a case. She had been observed driving badly at night. She was pulled over.

The Garda said:

“I asked her to step out of the car and immediately had to reach out to support her as she almost fell over as soon as she stood up. She was in a very advanced state of intoxication…and she had great difficulty remaining on her feet”.

She was arrested and brought to the station. She was read her rights. Then this happened:

“Over the next few minutes [she] aggressively requested to be brought to the toilet. She was brought to the toilet twice in quick succession…but [she] began to aggressively demand to be returned to the toilet immediately a third time. She threatened to “s***” in the public office and that she was “on her p*****”.  

The judge intervened at this point. “She said what?”

It was repeated, just in case the court reporter missed it.

Try unhearing that.

As you can imagine the case ended here. The rest of the evidence was irrelevant.

Your lawyer’s role

Part of what your job as a lawyer is to advise your client. Of the risks.

In my case above I had advised the client that this was a very difficult case.

It was very difficult primarily because of her behaviour.

I had advised her that there was a real risk of custody if the case went on. She insisted on fighting it.

When they convicted her the judge said to me:

“Address me on why I shouldn’t send your client to Limerick Prison”.  

We barely escaped custody.

Final Thought

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:

You can win a case if the Gardaí make a mistake.

You can win a case if the prosecution falls short. You can even win a case if the evidence looks bad—but the procedure was worse.

But what you can’t do is act like a lunatic in custody and expect a judge to help you out.

They (the State) have to get all the elements of the prosecution right—all the time.

You just have to create one doubt in the judge’s mind.

But if you behave appallingly in custody?

There won’t be any doubt.  Not about the result at least.

The only question is how bad can it get?

You have choices when you’re arrested.

You can choose to behave yourself, or you can choose not to.

It’s the choice between going off the road or driving home.

And everybody wants to drive home.

So, choose wisely.