In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Dublin man on child sex abuse charges in Derry

A 50-year-old unemployed man from Dublin appeared in court in Derry yesterday charged with sexually abusing four children – two boys and two girls – over 16 years, starting in January 1985.

Deputy District Judge James McFarland imposed reporting restrictions when a prosecution solicitor told him there was “a familial link between the defendant and the four complainants”, two of whom were in court.

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The defendant faces two charges of attempted rape, three of child neglect, eight of indecent assault and two of committing acts of gross indecency against the complainants on dates between January 1985 and December 2001, when he lived in Derry.

There was no application for bail and the defendant was held in custody to appear in court for a video link hearing on December 9th.

Deceased had toxic medication levels

A Dublin man who was found unresponsive by a nurse in a psychiatric hospital where he was a patient had toxic levels of two medications in his system at the time of his death, an inquest has heard, writes Georgina O'Halloran.

Kevin Martin (60), Howth Road, Clontarf, was pronounced dead at the Mater hospital on September 25th, 2008, having been brought there by ambulance.

Mr Martin, who had a history of schizophrenia, had suffered a heart attack.

A postmortem found Mr Martin, who had a severe degree of heart disease, had toxic levels of antipsychotic medication clozapine and of antidepressant medication citalopram.

'Sunday World' loses Traveller case

The Sunday Worldis to pay a Traveller an undisclosed sum and has apologised before the High Court to him over an article describing him as a "land grabber". The newspaper also accepted David Joyce "is a person of good character".

Mr Joyce (50) had in 2007 secured €1 million in compensation from Fingal County Council after it compulsorily purchased lands over which he had acquired squatters rights for more than 20 years.

Judge wants to hear from Revenue

A man who owes the Revenue Commissioners €500,000 in VAT and other tax liabilities has had his sentencing adjourned because the judge wants to hear from the Revenue Commissioners first.

Bernard Brady (43), Greenore, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to 10 offences relating to unpaid VAT on sales between January 2006 and July 2007.

Judge Ray Fulham said he wanted to first hear from somebody in Revenue “who has the full facts of all the dealings with Mr Brady”.

Paul O’Higgins SC said an article of March 2005 said exhibited a Mississippi Burning attitude towards Travellers.