A self-confessed murderer who stabbed his wife 14 times has lost a €60,000 personal injuries claim against a Dublin tram driver arising from a road traffic crash.
Judge Fiona O’Sullivan threw out the case brought by Bahaalddin Aishwawrah, of Park Na Sillogue Court, Enniskerry, on the basis he had failed to prove that a rear-ending collision, in which he had been injured, had occurred in the manner he had outlined to the Circuit Civil Court.
Matthew Jolley, counsel for Liberty Insurance, who appeared with George Maguire of Coughlan White Solicitors, said Aishwawrah had misled the court about the circumstances of the crash and had concealed mental health issues he suffered from for years before the crash.
Aishwawrah (45), from Jordan, claimed motorist James O’Brien, who gave his insurer’s Blanchardstown address, had slammed into the back of his car in February 2019 just under three years before Aishwawrah ended his wife’s life in the kitchen of their Co Wicklow home.
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Barrister David McParland, counsel for Aishwawrah, told Judge O’Sullivan that while the claim arose from “a straightforward bog-standard rear ending”, she would hear that Aishwawrah was in Mountjoy Prison as the result of the incident in his home on Christmas Eve 2021.
Aishwawrah, wearing glasses and a chest-length greying bushy beard with his hair in a ponytail, said he had been driving over Mount Street Bridge, Dublin, with his wife and young daughter in the car, when Mr O’Brien had driven into the back of them.
He said he had suffered a head injury with concussion when his face struck the steering wheel as well as injuries to his left shoulder, neck and lower back. He had later received painkillers and injections and had been treated by a pain specialist.
Aishwawrah said Mr O’Brien had earlier called his wife a b***h following an interaction on the road and had headbutted him in the face when they got out of their cars. Mr O’Brien denied the allegations and told Judge O’Sullivan Aishwawrah had suddenly slammed on his brakes allowing him no time to avoid a collision. He agreed he had hit Aishwawrah’s car.
Aishwawrah told the court he still suffered from pain and was unable to lift items, such as cell bins, in prison. When cross-examined by Mr Jolley about his failure to divulge his mental health problems to the defendant, Aishwawrah objected to his private life being exposed.
Judge O’Sullivan, dismissing Aishwawrah’s claim, said there was no dispute that an crash had occurred and she had listened carefully to the account of both parties. She had not been satisfied that Aishwawrah had proved, on the balance of probabilities, that the crash had occurred in the manner he had described.
Aishwawrah, dressed in a grey polo neck top and tracksuit bottoms and wearing Adidas runners, accepted the court’s decision without comment or specific reaction and allowed his three accompanying prison officers to handcuff him in court before being led to a prison van in the barrister’s car park at the Four Courts.
He was described in the criminal courts in May last as a controlling husband who murdered his 42-year-old wife, Zeinat Bashabsheh, by stabbing her 14 times on Christmas Eve, 2021, after claiming she had an affair.
