Letterkenny Courthouse.
A 28-year old Buncrana man has been charged with a spate of glue attacks on cars and houses in the Letterkenny area.
He is William James McElwaine of 13 Earlsfort, who appeared at the local district court on Monday after being arrested by gardai at the weekend.
He faces 29 charges of criminal damage to houses and cars on ten different occasions between September 2012 and May 2013. The locations included housing estates such as Ballymacool Terrace, Iona, Glencar Park, Wolfe Tone Place and Ard Colmcille.
Pensioners and young families were locked out of their homes when their front doors were super-glued. Thousands of euro worth of damage was caused to the doors of houses and cars.
Garda Stephen Moyles told the court that McElwaine had no response when 26 of the charges were put to him.
Of the other three charges he replied “I only did that once” to two of the charges and “I don’t remember, I don’t know that place,” to another charge.
McElwaine sat in court wearing a blue hoodie and didn’t speak throughout the hearing.
Garda Moyles said that he did not know the full extent of the cost of the attacks but one woman got a quote of €1,000 to repair her car.
Other homeowners had agreed a deal with a local locksmith to have the locks on their homes replaced.
Solicitor Mr Frank Dorrian said he was seeking an adjournment to see the exact cost of the damage.
Inspector Michael Harrison, who said a full file has been prepared on the matter, said he had no objection to bail.
Judge Paul Kelly adjourned the case until June 5 and ordered McElwaine to sign on three times each week at Buncrana Garda station and keep a curfew of between 11pm and 7am each day.
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