A 61-year-old man has paid €3,000 in compensation and will serve a six-month prison sentence after releasing rats into his workplace.
John O'Neill trapped and released two live rats into the Cork County Council office at Rathbeg in Kinsale on the 9th of February this year, following a breakdown in relationship with management.
Bandon District Court heard that the rats caused thousands of euro in damage, before being removed by pest control.
Mr O'Neill had no previous convictions but had stepped down from his position after 23 years working with the council with "self-imposed" financial loss, due to a breakdown in relationship with a member of management.
The Evening Echo reports that O'Neill's solicitor Diarmuid O'Shea said that his client "had gone to hospital with stress in July 2020."
However, Judge McNulty said that "there were plenty of ways of dealing with feelings of stress that didn't involve releasing rats into an office."
O'Shea added that his client had 'just flipped', however Judge McNulty said the incident wasn't a momentary lapse of behaviours, but a deliberate act that "required forethought".
"He needed to catch and find rats. He needed to release them."
He had jailed O'Neill for six months to send out a strong message and a deterrent, and an appeal has been lodged in the case.
