Courts News Ireland
(Pictured: Abuse Survivor Aoife Farrelly. Photo: Collins)
By Fiona Ferguson and Isabel Hayes
A woman who was raped and sexually abused by her older brother when she was a child has said that today is the start of the rest of her life after he was jailed for three years.
Cian Farrelly (30) was a teenager when he began abusing his seven-year-old sister when he was minding her in their family home in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.
His sister Aoife Farrelly (21), who waived her anonymity so he can be named, said her brother had “literally and metaphorically” held her in a chokehold for so ….read more
(Pictured: Farah Damji. Photo: Collins)
A bench warrant has been issued for the arrest of notorious international conwoman Farah Damji, who lost a Supreme Court bid to prevent her extradition to the UK and has failed to appear before a scheduled sitting of the High Court.
For the past two years Ugandan-born Damji (55) has been fighting her extradition to the UK, where she had been on trial for twice breaching a restraining order before absconding to Ireland. She is the daughter of a deceased South African-born property tycoon and has a criminal record for fraud and theft stretching back to the ….read more
A man who was jailed for seven years for rape has had his conviction quashed today after the Court of Appeal ruled that interventions made by the judge during the trial “were likely to have rendered the verdict unsafe”.
The man had pleaded not guilty to one count of rape against a 17-year-old female at an address in Midleton, Co Cork, in August 2017.
A jury, however, convicted him of the offence in September 2020 and he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with the final three suspended by Mr Justice Alexander Owens at the Central Criminal Court ….read more
(File Picture: Stephen Cooper. Photo: Collins)
A former garda and another man have been jailed for drug and alcohol-fuelled assaults on two women, which culminated in one woman being bundled into a van and told she would be driven to the mountains and buried.
During the ordeal in April 2021, Dublin man and former garda Stephen Cooper (37) forced a woman to take part in a “strip search” after he claimed she had stolen drugs from him.
Cooper threatened the woman and then told her: “I used to be garda, I know how to do this” and “if you weren’t a thief, I ….read more
(File Picture: Mr Justice Paul McDermott. Photo: Collins)
By Fiona Ferguson and Isabel Hayes
A judge has criticised the family of two sisters who were raped and sexually abused by their older brother after members ostracised the victims and tried to prevent them from coming forward about the abuse in order to protect the family name.
Jailing Christopher Rafter (48) for four and a half years today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said it was “outrageous” that family members criticised the sisters and ostracised them for their courage in disclosing the abuse, which he said destroyed their childhood.
“They were little children in their own ….read more
The Commercial Court has reserved its decision in an application to make some of the directors of an Irish-registered international animation company personally made liable for company debts of approximately €30m.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey has been asked to make various orders against some of the directors of DQ Entertainments Ireland Ltd (DQE), which he was told made alleged payments worth millions to other companies for assets that did not appear to exist.
The orders, which include an order winding up the firm, are being sought by the company’s receiver Mr Patrick Bance, who was appointed in October 2019.
Mr Bance, who is ….read more