Courts News Ireland
(Pictured: Freddie Sherry. Credit: Collins)
The standardisation process used to estimate Leaving Certificate grades would not have discriminated against students attending disadvantaged schools even if data about schools’ past performances in the exam had been included, the High Court has heard.
Feichín McDonagh SC, for student Freddie Sherry, said the system envisaged by the authorities to estimate to award grades to students due to sit the Leaving Cert exam in 2020 was “highly sophisticated” and was not comparable to models that were used in England and Scotland.
Counsel said the standardisation process used to assess and award calculated A-Level grades in Scotland and ….read more
A Polish national’s “airgun” was confiscated by gardaí following an incident in which another man allegedly pointed the firearm out a car window, a court has heard.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Tomasz Surowiak (27) did not take part in this alleged incident and that he was unaware he needed a certificate in order to lawfully possess the firearm.
Surowiak, of Portersfield, Clonsilla, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a firearm without a certificate at Tyrone Place, Inchicore, Dublin 8, on August 18, 2018.
Garda Matthew Kennedy told John Berry BL, prosecuting, that on the date in ….read more
An addict hired to package millions of euro worth of heroin and cannabis in a “large scale drugs distribution hub” will be returned to jail after the Court of Appeal increased his sentence by four years.
The court would have increased it by more, but decided that this would be particularly harsh, given that the culprit had already been released from prison and resumed normal family life and found a job by the time of the appeal.
The increase in sentence came after the three judges agreed with the DPP that Mark O’Dwyer’s five-year sentence was unduly lenient.
The 46-year-old, of Emmet Buildings, ….read more
(Pictured: Sharif Kelly. Credit: Collins)
The Court of Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of two men attempting to overturn their convictions for murdering a dissident republican.
Sharif Kelly and Edward McGrath were sentenced to life in prison by the Special Criminal Court for murdering Peter Butterly in Meath almost eight years ago.
The State’s main witness in their trial at the three-judge court was their former co-accused, David Cullen, who had his murder charge dropped before giving evidence against them.
Mr Butterly (35), was chased and shot dead outside The Huntsman Inn, Gormanston, in view of students waiting for their school bus ….read more
A jury has found a teenage boy not guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl in a public park.
The defendant, now aged 17, told gardaí that after meeting the girl for the first time at a local shopping centre, they were kissing and the girl then suggested they go into a nearby park where she then suggested sex.
He said he was physically unable to have penetrative sex but said the girl masturbated him. He said he didn’t know her name and described her as “more locked than I was”.
In her evidence the complainant, now aged 16, testified that she was happy ….read more
A 23-year-old man facing sentence for assaulting his 75-year-old neighbour had one year earlier repeatedly punched a 17-year-old woman in another assault, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Dean Quigley, then 21, punched the young woman to the face, pulled her hair and continued to punch her while she was on the ground during a roadside assault on the N11 in July 2018.
The following year he twice trespassed into his elderly neighbour’s apartment and assaulted him the second time, telling his victim he would return and kill him if he told anyone what had happened.
The elderly man’s daughter found him when ….read more