Love split rugby star and wife trying my patience, says judge
A JUDGE has lamented that he is “sick and tired with the lack of progress” in the cases against a retired rugby star and his estranged wife who “are washing their dirty linen in public”.
Adjourning the cases against Simon Danielli and Olivia Danielli for a week, District Judge Mark Hamill warned their lawyers “I’m getting to the stage where I will have these two defendants connected and have them attend court every single time” the cases are mentioned.
Mr Danielli, a 37-year-old retired winger who played for Bath, Ulster and Scotland and who has an address at The Coaches in Holywood, is charged with damaging an iPhone belonging to his wife Olivia.
He also faces three counts of common assault alleging that he assaulted both her and her friend in March last year. Mrs Danielli (29), from the Marino Station Road, also in Holywood, is accused of damaging her husband’s £38,000 Jaguar XF car in August last year.
The former model had at one stage been charged with assaulting the 6ft 2in former international winger — but that offence was dropped by the PPS earlier. Lawyers for Mr Danielli had been set to argue the case against him should be dismissed on the grounds of an abuse of process, relying on a decision not to prosecute him being reversed.
But yesterday Stephen Molloy asked for the case to be adjourned for a week to allow senior QC Mark Mulholland to address the court. It was then that Judge Hamill said he was “sick and tired” of the case languishing in his court list.
Neither defendant has attended court at any stage and having warned that the defendants faced the prospect of being compelled to come to court every time, the judge added that might “let them assess what they are going through”.
“Let them assess that it’s a public court to which the Press and the public have access and what they’re doing, to use the vernacular, is washing their dirty linen in public,” declared the judge.