A round-up of today's other stories in brief
PSNI seeks witness to fatal attack
The PSNI has appealed for an Australian tourist who witnessed an attack on a 56-year-old man in south Belfast that led to his death to come forward. The attack took place outside the Ulster Hall in Bedford Street last Saturday and he died in hospital late on Wednesday.
A murder inquiry has been opened and a postmortem conducted.
The street was busy and detectives want to speak to a female Australian tourist who saw the incident and ran to a restaurant to call for help. One man is still in police custody.
The PSNI is also investigating the killing of a man in his 40s, believed to be a foreign national, whose body was found at an address in the university area. Two men have been detained in connection with his death. The victim is understood to have suffered head injuries and was discovered by a contractor due to carry out repair work in Penrose Street. After postmortem tests a police spokeswoman confirmed they were treating the death as murder.
Teenager hit by car dies of injuries
A 17-year-old pedestrian hit by a car in Bishopstown, Cork on Monday night died yesterday as a result of his injuries. A spokeswoman for the Garda press office said the incident occurred shortly after 10pm on Monday at Curraheen Road.
Solicitor fined for overcharging
A solicitor has been censured and fined for overcharging a victim of institutional abuse who was paid compensation by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Reports from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal carried in the current issue of the Law Society Gazette, show that Michael Buggy, practising at Parliament Street, Kilkenny, was found guilty of misconduct, censured and ordered to pay €5,000 to the solicitors' compensation fund. The tribunal found he had charged his client a professional fee for appearing before the redress board claiming that this fee was not recoverable from the board, but without providing documentary evidence of the work.
He also negotiated a fee from the redress board for representing this client before it, without informing his client or obtaining his instructions on the fee.
Mr Buggy was also censured for deducting fees from his client's award from the redress board without the client's written authority, and for failing to give his client a letter in advance setting out his expected costs.
The Law Society and the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal are already facing judicial review proceedings from two Co Cork-based solicitors against whom similar complaints were made to the tribunal.
Last May Gary O'Driscoll, of Shearwater Apartments, Kinsale, and Grattan d'Esterre Roberts, of Riverwood, Currabinny, Carrigaline, got leave from the High Court for judicial review proceedings challenging the actions of the society and the committee.
They claim the society was affected by media controversy on solicitors' fees for clients claiming from the redress board.
Six other solicitors were also recently censured and fined by the solicitors tribunal, as reported in the latest Law Society Gazette, for offences ranging from a failure to provide proper accounts to failing to progress personal injuries claims on behalf of clients.
Garda completes Channel swim
A 30-year-old garda yesterday completed a swim of the English Channel to raise funds for the Kinsale branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, writes Barry Roche. Danny Coholan, from Kinsale, Co Cork, based at Anglesea Street in Cork city, spent 16 hours swimming what is thought to be one of the longest geographical swims of the Channel.