A 62-YEAR-OLD farmer has told a court that neighbours’ dogs bit him in the head and leg while on the ground as his neighbours obstructed him using a right of way last year.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Clare farmer Joseph Scales, of Calluragh, Ennistymon, made an application to have two of his neighbours committed to prison after he accused them of breaching a court order over a right of way dispute.
In a row going back eight years and in court on several occasions, Mr Scales was seeking a court order for the imprisonment of Patrick J Madigan and Anne Madigan for repeatedly barring the right of way, interfering with his property and breaching court orders made in 2003, 2007 and 2009.
CCTV located along the right of way showed footage of the Madigans obstructing Mr Scales on November 28th last.
In an incident lasting five minutes and played in court yesterday, the Madigans’ son, Joe, was seen to wrestle Mr Scales to the ground.
Giving a commentary on the footage, Sgt Brian Howard said it showed the Madigans’ dogs biting Mr Scales while he was on the ground and Mr Scales’s legs kicking out at the dogs in response. Mrs Madigan, representing herself, denied that they bit Mr Scales, telling the court “they are playing around him”.
Mr Scales said: “I was bitten by the dogs on the head and the leg.”
The footage shows Joe Madigan on two separate occasions lying on top of Mr Scales at the right of way with Mr Madigan’s parents standing over the two.
Counsel for Mr Scales, Pat Whyms, said that on the second occasion Mrs Madigan asked her son to get off Mr Scales and let him go. Mr Whyms said that prior to the November incident, the Madigans had placed a car across the right of way preventing Mr Scales from accessing his lands.
Joe Madigan was not a notice party in the proceedings and Judge Carroll Moran said that there was stronger evidence against PJ Madigan for the committal to prison, with the evidence against Mrs Madigan more tenuous.
Addressing PJ Madigan, Judge Moran asked him why he should not send him to prison.
Mr Madigan replied: “If you want me to go, I’ll go. If I was put down, I would be better off. You can imprison me for life.”
Mr Madigan said that if he was to allow Mr Scales use his farm machinery to use the right of way “the roof would come off our home”.
Judge Moran said he would allow the Madigans 30 minutes to consider their position. On returning to court, the Madigans gave a sworn undertaking that they would not interfere with Mr Scales’s use of the right of way.
Mr Whyms made an application for costs on the grounds that the matter had been before the court on “countless occasions” and not once had Mr Scales been successful in obtaining costs.
Judge Moran gave Mr Whyms liberty to re-enter the matter but adjourned the matter of costs.
