Courts News Ireland
A man who began sexually abusing his step-daughter before her first Communion and went on to abuse her for six years in the 1970s has failed in an appeal against his conviction.
The trial at Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court heard that the attacks began when the victim was seven years old and the man was 25. The sexual abuse stopped when she was 12 years old.
The defendant was in a long-term relationship with the victim’s mother at the time and though they were never married, he was effectively the girl’s step-father.
The man (71), who cannot be named in ….read more
An intellectually disabled man was caught moving heroin to assist his step-son, who had a drug debt of €150,000 and was later shot dead, a court has heard.
Peter Finnegan (37) agreed to move the drugs in his car in June 2018 to help his step-son Jordan Davis (22) who had amassed at one stage a drug debt of €150,000. The family home was attacked many times due to this debt.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Mr Davis was shot dead on May 22, 2019 while he was wheeling his four month old baby in a buggy.
Finnegan with an address at ….read more
Lidl Ireland has told the High Court that allegations made by the Irish Farmers Association that the supermarket chain has misled its customers and that its own brand milk is not Irish are untrue and defamatory.
The German-owned chain claims that in recent weeks the IFA has published adverts in the media that contain statements about Lidl, including that its milk is not Irish, that it says are extremely damaging to its business and its reputation.
It also claims that the allegedly untrue allegations contained in the adverts have been repeated by senior IFA figures in media interviews and on its own ….read more
A man with an acquired brain injury who repeatedly punched a garda in the face has received a fully suspended sentence.
Paul Rooney (30), who suffered an acquired brain injury in 2003 when he was the victim of a hit-and-run incident, attacked a garda after he was caught dragging a bike still attached to a bike rack down a busy Dublin city centre street.
Rooney of Railway Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting a garda at Beaver Street, Dublin, on January 19, 2019. He has 37 previous convictions including criminal damage, theft and handling stolen property.
Judge Martin Nolan had ….read more
Jonathan Collopy, who is wanted in Bulgaria to serve a sentence for drink driving and who has a conviction for serious drugs offences from the early 2000s, claims there is a risk he will receive inadequate medical care for his “severe back pain” should he be extradited there, the High Court has heard.
Katherine McGillicuddy BL, for Mr Collopy, told Mr Justice Paul Burns today that her client suffers from “back and disc problems” and prison facilities in Bulgaria were “substandard”. She argued that the High Court had “some duty” to prevent the respondent’s health deteriorating and said he is ….read more
(Pictured: Catherine Dawson. Credit: Collins)
Criminals used a 44-year-old care worker to transport more than €600,000 in cash because she had a valid reason to travel during the pandemic lockdown, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
Mother-of-two Catherine Dawson had a previously unblemished record and was acting on the instructions of another person when she allowed the money to be put into her car, her barrister Caroline Biggs told the three-judge court. She has lost her standing in her community, her job as a supervisor with a healthcare company and must build her life again, counsel said.
The court also heard that a ….read more