(File Picture: Mr Cahir O’Higgins. Credit: Collins)

A criminal defence solicitor accused of theft and perverting the course of justice wants to meet the case head on and “reclaim his reputation”, a court has heard.

Cahir O’Higgins (45) appeared briefly before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today in order to set a trial date.

Mr O’Higgins has been charged with stealing €400, the property of Raul Sanz Quilis, at Londis, Parkgate Street, Dublin on July 30, 2016.

He has also charged with four counts of perverting the course of justice in December 2017, by giving Detective Garda Colm Kelly a copy of notes purportedly made ….read more

(Pictured: Stephen Power. Credit: Collins)

A company director who created bogus invoices to avoid paying nearly €50,000 in tax has been jailed for six months.

Stephen Power would never have been prosecuted if he had owned up to Revenue as soon as they started investigating him, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today.

Instead, he made no admissions and was found to have avoided paying taxes to the value of €47,700 between 2010 and 2013.

Power, with an address at Turvey Avenue, Donabate, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to four counts of knowingly filing incorrect end-of-year tax returns to Revenue between January 2011 and December ….read more

By Declan Brennan and Fiona Ferguson

A Co Monaghan farmer has been jailed for six years for sexual assaults on his grandchildren.

The 67-year-old man, who cannot be named to preserve the anonymity of his child victims, was convicted last March of sexual assault and child exploitation six years ago.

The abuse emerged in late 2014 after one child told her mother that her grandfather had made her watch a sexually explicit film on his computer before then forcing her to masturbate him. The court heard the man would frequently have the children stay for “sleepovers” at his home.

During the ensuing investigation, gardaí ….read more

A man who claimed he was defending his fiancée when he punched two sisters in the face at a hen party has received a fully suspended sentence.

Luka Tomljanovic (33) of Gardiner Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of assault causing harm at Sam’s Bar, Dawson Street, Dublin, on January 19, 2019. He has no previous convictions.

Detective Garda Fiona Deehy told Dara Hayes BL, prosecuting, that in the early hours of the morning on the date in question, sisters Aoife and Shauna O’Connor were attending a hen party in the city centre bar.

Det Gda Deehy ….read more

Lawyers for a garda who is facing trial for allegedly threatening to kill his wife have asked a court to order the media not to publish his name.

The Dublin-based officer (43) is charged with threatening to kill or cause serious harm to his then wife on dates in October 2012. He is also charged with coercing her at the same address outside Dublin on the same dates.

At a District Court earlier this month, Judge Paula Murphy made a temporary gagging order preventing the publication of the defendant’s name. Judge Murphy said she was restricting the reporting until such time that ….read more

A mother-of-three caught with €20,000 worth of cannabis under her stairs told gardai she was under financial pressure ahead of her child’s confirmation, a Dublin court has heard.

Sonia Collins (38) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of possessing cannabis for sale or supply at her home in Kilcronan Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin on March 4, last year.

She told gardaí she had run up a drug debt of €200 after buying some cocaine for social use and was then unable to repay it as her child’s confirmation was coming up. She told gardaí she felt “stupid” for agreeing ….read more

A teenager who was repeatedly caught by gardaí selling drugs from the same vacant cabin has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that there was “a level of stupidity” in Nathan Flynn (now 20) continuing to sell cannabis, cocaine and heroin from the same cabin in which he was residing at the time, despite being caught by gardaí on six occasions over a three month period.

Flynn, of Killinarden Heights, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply at Rossfield Park, Tallaght, on six dates between June 9, 2019 and August 19, 2019.

He ….read more

A father-of-one who fired a shotgun during the failed robbery of a pub has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Robert Cullen (28) threatened to shoot two pub workers who later eluded him and threw a heater through a window to “draw attention to their plight”.

Cullen, of Briarwood Green, Huntstown, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery, possession of a double barrelled sawn-off shotgun and discharging a firearm at Paddocks Pub, Clonee, on June 11, 2018.

Detective Sergeant Shane McCartan told Sinéad Ní Chúalacháin BL, prosecuting, that two workers had just opened the pub on the morning in question ….read more

A chronic drug addict has been jailed for six years for carrying out three robberies in the space of 15 months.

Martin Kenny (48) grabbed a woman in her 60s who was doing her lotto numbers in her local bookmakers during one raid. The woman said she was so terrified she couldn’t look at the robber’s face but the cashier later told gardaí that the man had a pointed object underneath the woman’s chin.

In an earlier raid at a different bookmakers Kenny grabbed another customer in a headlock while holding a knife to his throat. He demanded cash and as he ….read more

A convicted child abuser who sexually assaulted two teenage girls while he was acting as their Taekwon-Do instructor has been sentenced to two years.

Both women, now aged 20 and 23 years old, waived their anonymity allowing Patrick Kelly (52) to be identified in reporting the case.

Kelly is already serving a nine year prison sentence, handed down in December 2017, for sexual assault and exploitation of two children. He is also serving a consecutive term of four years, imposed last month, for rape, sexual assault and exploitation of a girl he groomed after he met her at a city bus stop.

Kelly, ….read more