News reporter Jerome Hughes was broadcasting live from the Terence Wheelock inquest on 13 July when a man came up behind him and made a gun sign with his hand. He put the 'gun' in the journalist's face and shouted: "I'll blow your f***ing head off."

His shocked colleagues in the TV3 news studio immediately ended the report but the man, who was wearing a brown hooded jumper, continued to abuse and harass the journalist.

He ripped Hughes's ear-piece from him and smashed it on the ground before running into a nearby pub. Gardai from Store Street watched the incident live on television and were on the scene within five minutes.

Uniformed officers knew the identity of the man and asked if Hughes wanted to point him out and press charges.

After consulting with management at the station, it was decided that they did not wish to have him prosecuted. Gardai cannot investigate the incident without receiving an official complaint.

Threatening to kill somebody is a very serious offence and carries a maximum 10-year jail term.

The incident happened outside the Bord Gais office on Foley Street, Dublin 1. The TV3 crew had been given permission to record outside Store Street station but a mix-up saw them moved on.

While they were waiting to go live on air, a number of individuals shouted obscenities and the man in the brown top came out of a pub with his hood up but pulled it down before threatening the journalist.

Jerome Hughes, a very experienced broadcaster, has described the incident as "unnerving".

"I didn't really have time to be frightened and I wasn't sure what was happening because everything went so quickly, " he said.

"Looking back now, it was disconcerting and unnerving and I suppose he could have had a gun or knife. Immediately after we went back to studio, he ripped out my ear-piece and smashed it. The gardai were at the scene in less than five minutes and asked if I wanted them to bring the man in.

"It is hard to know what the best thing to do was but we decided that it wasn't worth the hassle.

What's the point in giving a guy like that another conviction?

Somebody like that obviously needs rehab. That has never happened before in TV3. People do sometimes shout abuse from a distance but nobody has ever come so physically close and made a threat like that before, " Hughes added.

The man who made the threat was in no way associated with the family of the late Terence Wheelock. Hughes was covering the Wheelock inquest which was taking place at the Coroner's Court off Foley Street.