Driver had trousers around ankles, court hears

A motorist who was naked from the waist down when he stopped to ask a female pedestrian for directions, has been fined €600.

Robert Szlapa (35), Apartment 1, Gallop View, Cregmore, pleaded guilty before Galway District Court this week to breaching the peace by engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour at Bohermore on August 19 last year.

Inspector Brendan Carroll said Szlapa saw a female walking on the footpath towards him as he was driving his car on the Bohermore Road at 6.30a.m. on August 19 last.

He stopped the car, let down the front passenger’s window and asked the woman for directions to the Tuam Road.

She noticed he had his trousers pulled down below his knees and was fully exposing himself. He then drove off, Insp Carroll explained.

The woman made a complaint to Gardai and they contacted Szlapa.

He went to the Garda station and made full admissions there.

Defence solicitor, Olivia Traynor said her client had no previous convictions and was ashamed.

She said he lived with his partner and had not told her yet about this incident.

He had been living in Ireland for almost five years and was employed, she added.

Judge Fahy said the court would usually be given a psychological report and she asked if Szlapa had any underlying problems, such as problems at work or family issues.

Ms Traynor said she had asked him with the aid of a Polish interpreter as his English was not good, and he had replied he did not have any underlying problems.

“He knows what he did was very stupid,” she said.

Ms Traynor said a conviction would have serious consequences for her client because he was holding down a job and worked with people of his own nationality.

Judge Fahy suggested Szlapa might need some sort of counselling and she suspected he may have been under some sort of pressure at the time.

Ms Traynor said he was highly ashamed and felt totally stupid.  “The lady said his hands were on the steering wheel,” she added.

Judge Fahy asked the interpreter to again ask Szlapa if there was something bothering him that he was not telling Ms Traynor, perhaps, he was under pressure at work.

He replied he had not been under any pressure at the time.

Judge Fahy said she had to mark a conviction so that the man would now come under the Garda “radar”, but she said she felt a custodial sentence would be of no benefit as he would lose his job and his relationship with his partner.

The judge said she felt his remorse was genuine.  “I tried to go down the route of getting a psychological report but he doesn’t want that,”  she said.

Ms Traynor explained he just wanted the matter dealt with.

Judge Fahy convicted and fined him €600, giving him five months to pay.