WOMAN MOVED OUT OF HOME OUT OF FEAR FOR HER NEPHEW

A woman giving evidence in a bail hearing told Judge Gerard Haughton she had moved from her home out of fear of her nephew.

Accused man Kevin Caulfield from Longmeadow in New Ross was brought in custody before Wexford District Court to deal with charges alleging assault and criminal damage.

It was alleged that the 39-year-old turned up on May 16 at Ard na Gréine in New Ross where he was seen throwing stones at the car belonging to his aunt’s husband Willie Delaney.

When the vehicle’s 70-year-old owner came out, according to Garda Robert Flynn, he received a punch.

The court learned that Caulfield was on bail at the time and that a criminal damage prosecution relating the grave of the aunt’s mother (his own grandmother) was pending.

Margaret Delaney, wife of Willie Delaney and aunt of Kevin Caulfield, was called to the witness box.

She told the court that her husband had medical problems and that he was assaulted on the date in question.

She reported that the defendant had made threats against the couple saying that he would take a gun to them.

She added that she was now afraid to walk the streets of New Ross and that she had moved out of the house in Ard na Gréine to stay with a family member.

Resisting the prosecution application to have him remanded in custody, Caulfield undertook not to go near the Delaneys.

He said Ard na Gréine is a mile away from where he resides with his mother in Longmeadow.

He accepted that he made a threat but offered to sign on regularly at the garda barracks and obey a curfew.

However, his assurances did not impress Judge Gerard Haughton who found the aunt to be a rational individual.

The court felt that, with drink taken, Caulfield was likely to forget any terms of bail, so he was remanded in custody to a later date. RICHARD MCDONALD (51), currently resident at South Knock in New Ross, was prescribed jail after a judge ran out of patience with his repeated motor insurance offending.

The District Court learned how the father of three was pulled up at Schoolhouse Road on December 20 last with a homemade insurance disc which failed to fool the garda on duty.

He admitted making the cert himself, so the car he was driving was seized and the prosecution which landed him before the court in Wexford was initiated.

Judge John Brennan was given a list of McDonald’s six previous convictions for driving without insurance and told that the defendant was also twice before guilty of exhibiting false or imitation discs.

The accused stated that he had not been thinking clearly around the time of his latest offence as his house was re-possessed and the family later went three months homeless.

However, the court was not impressed to learn that the offence described occurred the day after he had been convicted of other motoring matters.

Judge Brennan pointed out to the defendant that he had already been given suspended sentence and community service verdicts which kept him out or jail.

While McDonald’s circumstances may have been difficult but ‘at some stage, the court has to say enough is enough.’

A six months prison sentence was handed down, this time with no suspension.