Today's other courts stories in brief
Rape case continues with legal argument
The trial of a man accused of raping his two daughters and their uncle has continued in legal argument in the absence of a jury.
The 44-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 35 charges of sexual assault, oral rape, anal rape and rape of his two daughters and younger brother-in-law on dates between December 1st, 1991 and June 1999 when the children were aged between five and 15 years.
The accused’s elderly father said earlier that his son never climbed on to a flat roof to get into the house through a bedroom window if he came home late, but would always ring the front door bell. He told Conor Devally SC (with Garnet Orange) defending, that his son’s eldest daughter never slept upstairs but that her bedroom was on the ground floor near his own.
The now 22-year-old complainant said her father would climb on to the roof, knock on her window, come in, sit on her bed, cry and rape her.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Daniel Herbert.
Death due to misadventure
A verdict of misadventure was recorded at the inquest into the death of a Kildare man who died after being struck by a train.
Shane Timoney (24), of Pollardstown, the Curragh, Co Kildare died on the railway line at Myrtle Hill, Cork on July 26th, 2008.
Cork city coroner’s court heard yesterday that the young man made an effort to get out of the way of the train, but fell back on to the railway track in front of it.
Niall McCarthy said he was driving a rail car from Kent station to Cobh at about 8am. As he neared a crossing at Lower Glanmire, he saw a man coming on to the track all of a sudden. He engaged his emergency brakes but was unable to stop.
Pat Timoney told the inquest that he had seen his son about a week before his death. His son had a brain disease for two or three years, but had decided not to take medication and was managing his life very well.
“I often felt there was a tremendous amount of loneliness and isolation involved in his disease. I felt for a human to exist in that state, he would be very close to the edge, but he seemed to surmount that and was never depressed,” he said.
Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a postmortem which showed no alcohol or drugs in his system. The cause of death was brain swelling contusion and inner cerebral trauma with laceration of the spinal cord consistent with a railway collision.
The jury reached a verdict of death by misadventure.
Suspended term for trespass, theft
A heroin addict who was arrested after climbing through the roof of a solicitor’s office was caught 12 hours later breaking in through the floor of Labour Party offices, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Anthony Prendergast (39) pulled up the floorboards of the offices in Finglas in an attempt to get into Hickeys Pharmacy below just a few hours after he was released from Garda custody.
Judge Katherine Delahunt sentenced him to 3½ years in prison, suspended for four years on condition he engages with the probation service and continues with his addiction treatment.
He pleaded guilty to trespass and theft at the solicitor’s office and pharmacy and criminal damage to a dental surgery and Labour Party offices, all on Main Street, Finglas on February 4th-5th, 2007.