This article is from page 13 of the 2007-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
ALLEGATIONS that an axe, alumi- num paint roller and sweeping brush were produced in a dispute between neighbours were made in court last ete
Before Ennis district court were Al- bert Mounsey (46), of 19 Oakwood Drive, Watery Road, Ennis and Hugh Dunne (56), of 17 Oakwood Drive, who denied assaulting each other last March.
Mr Mounsey pleaded guilty to dam- aging three windows on Mr Dunne’s home, on August 14 last.
Hugh Dunne told the court he had wheelbarrows of sand left over after he had completed his patio and he offered them to his neighbour Albert Mounsey.
“IT asked Albert Mounsey would he take it away. He said he would. He seemed to be on a high. He was shouting. I asked him to stop shout- ing. He shut the door in temper and came out the front door with the han- dle of an aluminum paint roller. As I was going into my house, he hit me on the back with the handle of the Steel roller,’ said Mr Dunne.
He said he saw Mr Mounsey out- side his door, with an axe in his hand, sLeSmrOnoherie
Mr Dunne told the court he had been harassed by Mr Mounsey.
“I was afraid of my life to go near him. I’m still afraid of what he would do. He is unpredictable,’ said Mr Dunne.
Mr Mounsey’s solicitor William Cahir replied, “You can’t expect the court to believe you are scared of your life of him and you are helping him fill a wheelbarrow.”
Mr Cahir said the allegation about the axe was not true.
Mr Mounsey told the court that Hugh Dunne arrived at his house with a yard brush in his hand.
“He stuck the brush into my back and said, “You are nothing but a b****rd and all your family are b****rds’, That put me into a rage and I got an extension pole. I did not touch the man. I did not assault him,” he said.
Mr Dunne’s solicitor Stephen Ni- cholas said to Mr Mounsey, in cross- examination, “You became agitated and you hit him with the roller.’ Mr Mounsey denied this.
Mr Nicholas said, “Since the date of this incident in March, every sin- gle day, you abuse Mr Dunne.”
Mr Mounsey replied, “I don’t abuse him. He abuses me.”
Judge Joseph Mangan dismissed the assault charge against Mr Dunne,
but convicted Mr Mounsey.
The judge asked Mr Mounsey to undertake to stay away from Mr Dunne and he did this.
The judge imposed a one-month jail term, and suspended it on con-
dition that he honour his undertak- ing to stay away from Mr Dunne. He fined him €100 for the criminal damage charge.