Courts News Ireland
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Courts News Ireland
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Courts News Ireland
By Eimear Dodd
An intellectually disabled man has walked from court after being handed a fully suspended sentence for having over €85,000 worth of drugs in his shed.
Alex Weir (28) with an address at Gibbons Terrace, Balbriggan, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to one count of possessing cannabis and cocaine at the same location on October 23, 2019. He has no previous convictions.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Melanie Greally said in light of Weir’s particular difficulties and needs, he would be “unsuitable for a custodial sentence”.
She imposed a four-year prison sentence, suspended in full on strict conditions including that Weir ….read more
A man with an auto-immune disease agreed to hold over €100,000 worth of drugs after he was told that if he wasn’t there for “the drop”, something would happen to his mother and his family home, a court has heard.
Peter Mellors (22) began to abuse cannabis to self-medicate following the diagnosis of a neurological condition, similar to multiple sclerosis, when he was 17-years-old. The court heard that the condition can lead to episodes of blindness and occasional paralysis of his legs.
Mellors of Mourne Grove, Skerries, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the drugs for sale or ….read more
A man who was caught with close to 100 files of child abuse material has been given a suspended sentence.
Paul O’Dowd (37) admitted to gardaí that the 78 images and 10 videos were found on his Samsung mobile phone and said he had previously viewed and downloaded images of child abuse. He said he had never sent such images on to other people.
Detective Garda Lisa Finn told Aoife O’Leary BL, prosecuting, that following a garda tip off, O’Dowd’s home was searched and a mobile phone was seized. This was later analysed and the images found were considered to be images ….read more
A Tunisian national who attacked a pregnant woman after he refused to pay for a public sex act from her has received a 21-month prison sentence.
Rafik Bin Salah (38), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to assault causing harm to the woman on the boardwalk on Eden Quay, Dublin city centre on the night of August 24, 2020.
Detective Garda James Campbell told Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, that the victim is a vulnerable person and that she was nearly seven months pregnant at the time and wasn’t “in a good place”.
At around two in the morning ….read more
Three men who separately sexually abused a child when they were teenagers during the early 1980s have been handed prison sentences.
Francis Murphy (61), Declan Murphy (54) and Francis Boland (56) were found guilty following a trial earlier this year. Each of the men had pleaded not guilty and have no previous convictions.
The victim, who was aged between 11 and 15 at the time, waived his anonymity to allow the accused to be named.
Imposing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Melanie Greally said it is “beyond comprehension” that the victim had been abused by three individuals during ….read more
A cleaner has secured €7,000 in compensation from her former employer along with orders for the payment of unpaid wages, holidays and compensation for further breaches of employment law when she was left without work after her maternity leave.
The Workplace Relations Commission heard the worker taken on to cover her leave was hired directly by a client of her employer for the same work.
Her employer Michael Naughton, trading as Eco-swift Environmental Services, maintained this meant there was “no position to return to”.
But the tribunal found there had been a “clear” breach of Dawn O’Brien’s rights and upheld her claim under ….read more
