The court heard the 32-year-old was so intoxicated that when he attempted to stand up, he was very unsteady on his feet and had to be arrested for his own safety.

In a court report published in last week’s Laois Nationalist newspaper and website headlined ‘Man who talked about “slicing Irish babies” to represent himself in court’, we quoted the defendant as referring to his solicitor Josephine Fitzpatrick and ...