This article is from page 12 of the 2009-11-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE victim of an assault has told a court that he was attacked with wheel braces, while he exercised at an Ennis leisure centre.
Anthony McDonagh told Ennis Circuit Court that he was training in the gym at Ennis leisure centre on the evening of July 3 last year.
He was preparing to finish up and go for a shower when he said that the door was pushed in and a number of
men arrived at the gym.
One man was holding a machete, which, he said, was swung at him. “I put up my arms. I got a wheel brace to the side of the head. I fell to the ground,” he told the court.
He said he was also cut with a knife and was struck to the face and body. “IT was ducking the machete and I just got attacked by wheel braces and stuff,” he told the jury.
Asked by counsel for the state, Stephen Coughlan, BL, what the ac-
cused did to him, he replied, “I’m not 100 per cent sure what he did. It happened so fast. He was with them.”
The court was told that Anthony McDonagh sustained head and wrist injuries and cuts to his left arm.
Under cross-examination by de- fence counsel Pat Whyms, the wit- ness said he is currently in prison. He admitted that he had carried out a revenge attack for the incident in the gym.
“What did you do?” asked Mr Whyms. Mr McDonagh replied, “I went to a barber’s and attacked him (a man other than the accused) with an axe.”
Details of the garda interview with the accused were read to the jury. He admitted going to the gym and said he went there to train.
“One of the lads handed me some- thing. I didn’t use it. It was a Stanley knife. There was a blade sticking out of the end,” he said.
Asked by gardai why he had a knife in a gym, he replied, “I don’t know. A fella gave it to me.” Asked why it was open, he said, “I don’t know.”
He told gardai that he threw away the knife after leaving the leisure centre.
Mr Whyms put it to one of the in- vestigating gardai, Mike Kelly, that his client “at all times manages to position himself away from the ac- tion.” Gda Kelly replied, “For most of it.”