This article is from page 18 of the 2009-06-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
A POLISH man accused of punching another man in the face has had the charge dismissed after his legal team argued there was an issue with iden- WUAYAU Item OslomeL UU Toy U LE
Polish native Cezary Pachucy (27), of Bri na Sionna, Shannon, was accused of assaulting Cristian Du- mitrescu, in Shannon last year.
Mr Dumitrescu told Ennis District Court that he was walking towards his apartment in Shannon at 9.40pm on April 20, 2008. He said he saw two men and they were “zig zagging. I didn’t know if they were drunk or having fun. Their behaviour looked suspicious to me.”
‘“T couldn’t avoid them really. It was too late. One of them, who was a tall guy, he basically threw his fist into
my nose without any reason. He also said a bad word,” he said.
He said he was afraid that he would be further assaulted and continued on to his apartment, before reporting the matter at Shannon Garda Station. He said that he was brought by gardai to the town centre and he spotted the two men in Supermac’s. “I indicated to gardai these were the guys. Only one of them assaulted me,’ he said.
However defence solicitor Tara Godfrey said that her client denies hitting Mr Dumitrescu. She said the complainant took part in an “infor- mal identity parade” and never point- ed out the defendant to gardai.
He replied, “I pointed out exactly to the guy who hit me.”
Garda Gary Farrell told the court that Mr Dumitrescu had a red mark on his face when he arrived at the
garda station that evening. “I decided to take Cristian with me to find these males and identify them,” he said.
Ms Godfrey told the court that the garda had no notes in his notebook of the accused being pointed out by the complainant. She said there was a doubt in the case. “We are not say- ing this man wasn’t attacked. We are saying my client didn’t attack him,” she said.
Judge Joseph Mangan said the court has to be extremely cautious. “That is one of the cornerstones of crimi- nal law. There have been, in the past, extraordinary miscarriages of justice in relation to mis-identification. The evidence is too vague to identify the defendant positively,’ he said.
He said he was left with a doubt, “not the strongest doubt I’ve ever had, but I have to dismiss.”