Jail for man caught with ‘machete-type' knife at Letterkenny bus station

A man caught by Gardai with a machete-type knife in his backpack at Letterkenny Bus Station has been jailed for five months.

Ross Lappin appeared by video link at Letterkenny District Court this week.

Garda Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that at 12.38am on September 29, 2023, Gardai received a call to say a man was acting suspiciously.

When they arrived they found Lappin, aged 31, and searched him under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

They found he had a ‘machete-type' knife in his possession and had no reason for having the weapon. Gardai said he was cooperative and was charged.

The previous night at 1am Lappin, who is originally from Northern Ireland, had been arrested at Pizza Max at Lower Main Street in Letterkenny after being drunk and aggressive to staff.

The court was told that Lappin has 85 previous convictions for a range of offences both in the Republic of Ireland and in the UK.

His solicitor, Mr Rory O'Brien, said his client first wanted to apologise to anybody he had offended at the pizza takeaway.

He added that his client had suffered from both alcohol abuse and mental health issues and had been left a ‘broken and bereft individual’ when these two were married together.

"He was studying engineering and had everything going for him but nature and nurture combined and there was a breakdown of his overall mental health in the past number of years," said Mr O'Brien.

He said that this was not helped by the sudden death of his mother aged just 69 last year.

However, Mr O'Brien said his client does have a future ahead of him and that he now knows that alcohol is not a way to medicate himself.

He said Lappin plans to go back to education in Northern Ireland once he gets out of prison.

The accused addressed the court and told Judge Eiteain Cunningham that he had been ‘going down the wrong path’ and apologised for making anybody uncomfortable saying he just wanted to be ‘a decent person’.

Judge Cunningham convicted the accused and jailed him for five months but backdated the sentence to when Lappin went into custody on September 30, 2023.