AN Australian court has heard details of how an Irishman punched a police horse while drunk after his Christmas party.

Colm James Keogh (31) pleaded guilty in Adelaide Magistrates Court to one count of disorderly behaviour in relation to the incident last December.

He was originally charged with ill-treatment of an animal and two counts of assaulting a police officer, however these charges were dropped.

Yesterday in sentencing submissions his lawyer Con O’Neill said that Mr Keogh had been attending a Christmas party at the Hilton Hotel, however insisted it was ‘not the posh one’, according to the Herald Sun.

Mr O’Neill told the court that his client remembered getting himself into a taxi, before finding himself on the city’s Hindley Street in just his underwear and a sock ‘sleeping it off’, the court heard.

A mounted police officer told him to wake up and get dressed.

Mr Keogh admitted to punching the horse – and had a swollen hand the next day.

“It’s unusual and it’s bizarre even but what it wasn’t was a deliberate action by a man who’s thinking straight,” Mr O’Neill said.

“He looks back with shame and embarrassment. He’s from a culture which loves horses.”

Mr Keogh spent eight hours in custody and Mr O’Neill said he was embarrassed by the incident.

He pleaded with the court not to record a conviction as it would hurt Mr Keogh’s hopes of being granted permanent residency.

The police prosecutor said the incident had left police horse with “no lasting impact”.

Magistrate Paul Bennett said there was a need for deterrence and there was a serious aspect to the offending.

“You accept that you were very intoxicated at the time,” he said.

“But there’s no excuse for you in the fact that you were so intoxicated. It was in fact a shameful thing for you to do.”

He added: “December last year was a difficult time for you because you and your partner lost a child in very tragic circumstances in December 2010, so I understand when December comes around every year that it is very sad”.

He said there was good reason for him to suspend the sentence and imposed a 15-month good behaviour bond.

He ordered Keogh pay court costs, prosecutions fees and the victims of crime levy.

Online Editors