Year-old assault case

accident after a jeep was taken.

Kane Dunne said that on the night of the alleged assault he was left with blood pumping from his eye. His mother Bridget said he was advised by a doctor not to play football for a year.

The teenager attended accident and emergency at Wexford General and was referred from there to hospitals in Dublin for treatment.

He told the court that he was aged 13 when the knife mentioned by counsel – which he described as a butter knife – was taken from him.

The alleged assault occurred while gardaí James Whelan and Paul Buckley arrested a second youth in the field.

Thomas O’Loughlin gave a statement in May of the following year to Sergeant Margo Kennedy.

He told the sergeant that on the night of December 18 he had disturbed two youths who were in a mobile home. They left through a window, dropping a bag which contained a television as they fled.

The court was reminded that the case had been listed for hearing as long ago as 2015 and that six previous dates were set only for the matter to be repeatedly adjourned.

Judge Haughton felt it was not reasonable that the matter had been hanging over the accused man’s head for four years.

He made no determination on the truth or otherwise of the evidence heard and instead struck out the proceedings.