A roundup of today's other court stories in brief
Trucker caused €500,000 in tunnel damage
A truck driver has pleaded guilty to careless driving following an incident in which he caused an estimated €500,000 worth of damage to the Jack Lynch tunnel in Cork.
Piotr Kowalicki (41), South Douglas Road, Cork, drove through the tunnel without lowering a hydraulic arm on his scrap metal truck. He did not realise it was damaging the lighting system in the northbound bore of the tunnel when he drove through it in May last year.
Kowalicki pleaded guilty yesterday at Cork District Court to careless driving, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and failing to report an accident. He was fined €900 by Judge Uinsionn Mac Gruairc.
Sgt Adrian Gamble said: "Overall it was the lights and fibre-optic cables that were damaged, but the damage was mainly caused to the lights."
Kowalicki had travelled the full length of the tunnel, leaving a trail of broken glass and debris, and had failed to stop. However, once gardaí identified the lorry and traced him, he was very co-operative.
Ex-coach guilty of sexual assaults
A 61-year-old former sports club coach has been convicted by a jury of sexual assault at a retrial at the Circuit Criminal Court in Monaghan.
Judge John O'Hagan, who had ordered there be no identification of any victim, remanded him in custody for sentence to be imposed at the Circuit Court in Cavan next month.
Judge O'Hagan warned that nothing should be published by the media that would lead to the identification of any of the victims or their families.
The jury delivered its guilty verdict on Wednesday evening, following a short retirement. An earlier trial collapsed last year after evidence was given by one witness that was deemed prejudicial for the jury.
Surgeon saw no lumpectomy sign
An expert in breast cancer surgery has told the €700,000 fraud trial of a consultant surgeon and his wife that her mammogram results showed no evidence of a lumpectomy having been performed on her.
Dr Emad Massoud (50) and Gehan Massoud (43), a nurse, Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, Co Meath, have both pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intending to defraud two insurance companies by falsely pretending that Ms Massoud had suffered breast cancer and that there was an obligation on them to settle serious illness claims.
Prof Michael Kerin, who has dealt with 150 breast cancer surgeries a year for the last 10 years, said that a tissue sample of the size claimed in this case would equate to the removal of half of the average-sized breast, and that the woman's mammograms showed no evidence of this.
He said it was "highly unusual" that the woman had a mammogram a month after such surgery and that her treatment as outlined "is not consistent with the normal management of a woman with breast cancer".
Prof Kerin added: "It just doesn't add up."
Earlier, the defence teams for Dr and Ms Massoud admitted that Dr Massoud had in fact carried out the alleged surgery on his wife and had lied on the insurance claim forms where he stated a colleague had performed the operation.
John Peart SC said his client told the "white lie" in the claim form because he was worried about the reaction from the Irish Medical Council.