SHELL SHOCK
Siblings fined €500 after showing no remorse for hitting aunt with 32 eggs
A JUDGE said a brother and sister who threw up to 32 eggs at their aunt during a five-minute “assault” have shown ‘no remorse’’ for their actions.
At Gort District Court yesterday, Judge Mary Larkin convicted and fined Cathal Connors, 26, and his 21-year-old sibling Michelle Connors over the attack on Mary Fahy.
She fined each €500 for the assault outside their home in Fannaun, Peterswell, Co Galway, on October 17, 2019 and each a further €500 for the criminal damage to Ms Fahy’s Ford Kuga.
In evidence, the victim previously told the court her face got “banged” and “bashed” with the eggs thrown by the pair.
She said: “It was bang, bang, bang, bang. I thought they were stones and they continued for five minutes or thereabouts and banging eggs off my face.”
Mrs Fahy told the court her niece and nephew threw “a dozen and a score of eggs” at her.
After reading Mrs Fahy’s hand written victim impact statement and a Probation Report on the two accused, Judge Larkin said: “I had hoped that I could deal with these matters by not criminalising two young people.
“I am quite satisfied that there isn’t any other way.
“That is because there is no acknowledgement of what went on, there is no apology and no remorse.”
Judge Larkin added: “I seriously regret that I have to convict these young people.
“Their parents and everyone who is involved in this very sad story should sit back and think about the shortness of life.
“They are young people and shouldn’t be going forward in this manner.” At the end of the contested hearing in the case in January of last year, Judge Larkin said the two siblings “deliberately assaulted this woman” with eggs.
She said the court had heard a history of family discord and unpleasantness linked to land “and these two young people got involved in whatever familial dispute that has been going on over land”.
In evidence, Mrs Fahy said she still has a mark on her face from the egg assault but that it wasn’t visible in court as she was wearing make-up.
Mrs Fahy – who lives 2.5km from the Connors property – said that her niece and nephew “had seen me coming at a distance… I knew they were getting at me and that they had something in mind”.
Mrs Fahy stated that she was driving her Ford Kuga car past her brother,
Patrick Connors’ home after getting shopping in Gort when Mr Connors’ two children carried out their egg assault.
Mrs Fahy agreed with solicitor for Cathal and Michelle Connors, John Nash, that there have been difficulties between her brother and a sister concerning a farm of land.
Mrs Fahy said “he tried to take over her farm…he is the one man causing all the problems”.
Mrs Fahy said that she wasn’t able to continue driving because she was in shock.
She said: “I got such a fright, my head just went. I am passing there 38 years and I never saw that before.”
Mrs Fahy’s son James was the first on the scene and he told the court that his mother “was in shock, shivering and very upset” when he arrived.
He said that there were eggs on her face, her clothing and the interior of the car and egg shells on the road.
For five minutes they were banging eggs at me MARY FAHY GIVING EVIDENCE AT COURT