FATHER AND DAUGHTER AVOID PRISON TERMS

CAMPILE PAIR HAD ASSAULTED ELDERLY MAN IN NEW ROSS

SUSPENDED prison sentences were recorded against the father and daughter who assaulted an octogenarian in a New Ross car park.

Sitting in the Circuit Court, Judge Martin Nolan decided to spare the pair jail after learning of their previous good record.

Father Tony Powell (58) of Priesthaggard, Campile, was the more reprehensible of the two, the judge reckoned.

The seriousness of his attack on Maurice Feehan was marked with a three and a half year sentence.

However, the former paramedic was given the opportunity to avoid time behind bars, once he raises €6,000 for the injured party.

Daughter Toni Powell was told that her threeyear term will be suspended after she agreed to find €1,500 compensation.

Feehan sustained fractured hip and eye socket injuries in the SuperValu car park on the afternoon of December 31 in 2018.

In a victim impact statement, he informed the court that he can no longer bend to tie his shoelace or raise his arms above his head.

The judge also learned that Tony Powell came originally from Wales and that he lost his parents at the age of eight, both killed in fatal African road accidents.

He had been living in County Wexford since 2014, his barrister revealed, adding that the defendant had never previously been known to be violent.

He cared full time for his wife.

The address of Toni Powell was given in court paperwork as 35 Waterside Apartments, Rosbercon, New Ross.

However, it was stated that the 23-year-old mother of four now lives in Campile with her fiancé Lucas Werner.

She was on Prozac at the time of the assault, according to barrister Caroline Latham, and she remains since under treatment for depression and anxiety.

Judge Martin Nolan noted that enmity had developed between the defendants and Feehan along with his partner.

It appeared to him that the Powells lost control on the day in question.

They were both found guilty of assault by a jury in a fully defended trial last year.

The judge felt that there were unique factors in the case which prompted him to suspend the sentences he recorded.

EACH year, the Community Employment Scheme grows and supplies plants for New Ross town as well as Tidy Town groups throughout the district.

Speaking at the municipal meeting manager Mick McCormack said: ‘ The last 12 months have proven more of a challenge as the scheme was stood down during previous lockdowns and is currently stood down again. There will be less plants to go around but we will supply as much as possible to the groups.’