This article is from page 13 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A 51-YEAR-OLD man has been ac- quitted by a jury of assaulting his three sisters, on a drink-fuelled St Stephen’s night in Kilrush two years ago.
At the end of a two-day trial at Ennis Circuit Court on Friday, the jury found Martin Walsh not guilty of assaulting his sisters Josephine O’ Loughlin and Caroline and Helena Walsh, causing them harm, in Kil- rush, on December 27, 2006.
Mr Walsh, of Island View, Kilrush, denied assaulting the women, during two incidents in the early hours of the morning. He pleaded not guilty to assaulting Josephine O’Loughlin at Francis Street and denied assault- ing Caroline and Helena Walsh at his home, some time later that night.
Josephine O’Loughlin told the trial that she and her husband John went to Charlie Martin’s bar on the night in question. She said on their way home, they met her brother Martin and his partner Julie Counihan, at Francis Street. “He came out of no- where,” she said.
“He was screaming and shouting. He had a bottle in his hand. He said he was going to do us. He repeatedly punched me in the mouth,” she said. She said she hit the ground and broke her wrist. She said she was knocked unconscious.
Under cross-examination by Lor- can Connolly, BL, for the accused (instructed by Mairead Doyle, solici- tor), Ms O’Loughlin denied that she was heavily intoxicated on the night.
“You say you were punched repeat- edly in the mouth. That didn’t hap- pen at all. You had no injury to your mouth. You say you were knocked unconscious. We didn’t hear that un- til now,” said Mr Connolly.
‘The accused and his partner were going about their business and you attempted to attack Ms Counihan and you fell to the ground and broke your wrist and you were very drunk,’ added the barrister.
Ms O’Loughlin replied that while She had drink taken, she was not “out of my mind with drink.” She said the injuries she sustained “were inflicted on me.”
Her husband John O’Loughlin told the court that the accused was “shout- ing expletives towards my wife” on the street.
‘He was coming towards us with a broken bottle in one hand. He pushed my wife to the ground,” he said. He also denied that his wife was very in- toxicated on the night.
Mr Connolly said, “At no stage did the accused man have a bottle,’ but Mr O’Loughlin repeated that he did.
Caroline Walsh told the trial that she and her sister Helena got a taxi from Kilkee to their sister Jose-
phine’s house in Kilrush in the early hours of that morning. She said that Josephine was covered in blood.
She and Helena then went to their brother Martin’s house at Island View in Kilrush. She said they knocked on the door. “I confronted him. I wanted to know why he beat my sister. He pulled me in the door and started beating me. He punched me in the face,” she said.
She said that her sister Helena tried to stop Martin from beating her, but he then hit her with a baseball bat to the head. “He hit her again while she was on the ground,” she said.
Mr Connolly put it to her that they had no business going to the ac- cused’s house at that hour of the night. She said she accepted it had been a foolish thing to do. “If he had apologised, there would have been none of this,” she said. Mr Connolly asked her did she recall picking up pots and pelting them at the house and she said she didn’t. He also said the accused did not have an imple- ment. “He was fending off an attack from ye,” he said.
Helena Walsh told the court that Martin hit her at his house. “I fell to the ground and then he hit me with a bat, once on the head, once on the hip while I was on the ground. Caroline pushed him. That was the only rea- son he didn’t hit me again,” she said. She said she received nine stitches to
a wound on her head at Ennis Gen- eral Hospital some hours later.
Mr Connolly put it to her that she and her sister “were completely out of control.” She replied, “We were upset about the state Josephine was in.” He also accepted it was foolish to go to Martin’s house at that hour o) aa elo ou rca ole
Garda Eoin Daly told the court he came upon Josephine O’Loughlin on Francis Street at around lam on December 27, 2006. He said her face was covered in blood and there were several marks all over her face. At 2.30am, he received a call to go to a house in the town where he met Caroline and Helena Walsh. Caro- line had an injury to her right eye, while Helena had sustained a cut to her forehead.
Martin Walsh told the court that he saw his sister Josephine in the pub that night, but they did not exchange words as they do not speak. He said that he left the pub with his partner, Julie Counihan. He said while they were on their way home, Josephine Started to run after them, at Francis Street.
“She grabbed on to Julie’s hair and ripped two chains from her neck,” he said. He said they went home to bed and after 2am he heard voices. He went downstairs and said Caro- line and Helena were beating his son. “They were screaming and roaring,”
he said. He said they ripped his pyja- mas from him and then left.
He denied assaulting the three women. Under cross-examination from Stephen Coughlan, BL, prose- cuting, Mr Walsh denied that he had waited for his sister Josephine on the street. He said he did not have a bot- tle in his hand.
His partner Julie Counihan told the court she wanted to phone the gardai that night, but the accused told her not to, as the three women were his sisters. She said Martin Walsh did not assault Josephine O’Loughlin. “If anything, she ran after me and as- Saulted me,’ she said. She said that Ms O’Loughlin was “on a rage with alcohol” that night.
“T never thought it would go this far. I never thought that brothers and sisters would have themselves inside in court,” said Julie Counihan.
Judge Gerard Griffin told the jury the three charges were “separate and distinct.” “Each must stand on their own merits and must be dealt with individually,” he said.
After more than two hours deliber- ating in the case, the jury found Mr Walsh not guilty on all three counts.