Man with ‘enlarged pupils’ banging on wrong door told gardaí he’d taken Daz washing power

Gareth Killeen (35) was looking for his friend’s home, had accidentally gone to the wrong house and had enlarged pupils when gardaí came across him.

He told Dublin District Court the “Daz” remark was “sarcastic” and he had only been drinking in a local pub.

Judge Paula Murphy found him not guilty of trespass but convicted him of public intoxication and fined him €250.

Killeen, of Barnswell Way, Drimnagh, had denied both offences. Garda Aaron Webb said he found him banging on the front door of a house at St Peter’s Crescent, Walkinstown last July 27.

Killeen’s pupils were “quite large” and he appeared “evasive, hyped and hyper.”

When asked if he had taken anything he “indicated that he had consumed Daz” which the garda took to be a reference to cocaine.

The accused said he had been drinking in a pub and had “mixed up” his friend’s address when the garda arrived.

“He said ‘are you on something?’ and I said oh yeah, Daz. I was being sarcastic, it was just alcohol,” Killeen told the court.

Defence barrister Rory Mulvaney said Killeen realised the comment was a mistake in “the cold light of day.”

The garda said the intoxication charge did not have to specify a substance.