MAN IN ‘RACIST’ ASSAULT CASE IS REFUSED BAIL

A DUNDALK MAN has been refused bail after being charged in connection with what gardaí said was a ‘ totally unprovoked racially motivated attack’ on a 49-year-old Nigerian man on the Castletown Road last week. Martin Smith, from Ashling Park, is accused of assault causing harm and being one of three men involved in the incident last Tuesday. It is alleged that the victim was called ‘a black bastard’ and attacked.

A 25-year-old Dundalk man has been charged in connection with what Gardai have described as a ‘completely unprovoked, racially motivated attack’ on a Nigerian man during which, it is alleged, the victim was beaten a number of times and threatened with a knife.

Martin Smith, from Aisling Park, was, Gardai alleged, one of three men involved in the attack on the 49-year-old man as he was walking at the Castletown Road last Tuesday night. He has been charged with assault causing harm.

During a bail application at the vacation sitting at Dundalk District Court, it was alleged that Smith called the alleged victim ‘a black bastard’ after asking him the time. It is the State’s case that the victim was’ punched in the head’ and ‘ran for his life’ before he fell and was attacked for a second time by the three men.

Garda Stephen Byrne claimed the victim escaped a second time, but was caught again by the trio and attacked once more before a ‘good Samaritan, a witness’ pulled the men off the victim. It is alleged that one of the attackers, not Smith, had a knife and hit the victim in the head with it.

Gda. Byrne claimed the witness was shown CCTV taken from close to the scene, which was, they say, ‘very good quality’. The Garda said: ‘ This was racially motivated and totally unprovoked in any way, shape or form’.

He revealed that the two others alleged to have been involved have been identified from the footage and are ‘ being actively sought by Gardai’.

He was objecting to bail on a number of grounds, including the seriousness of the alleged offence. Gda. Byrne said the alleged victim received an incision to his head after one of the assailants, not Smith, ‘stabbed him in the head’.

Gda. Byrne said the alleged victim is recovering and investigators are awaiting medical reports, though the man needed stitched and ‘suffered bruising and other injuries’. He said he believed the case would not be dealt with at district court level and would end up being sent forward to the circuit court.

In addition, Gda. Byrne said, there were con- cerns that Smith would ‘commit further serious offences’ if granted bail.

Solicitor Niall Lavery said his client has no history of taking bench warrants and added that the ‘very earliest’ the case would be listed before the circuit court was October, adding that contested cases would not get a trial date to next year because of ‘ the considerable delay in the locality’.

Mr Lavery said his brother, Peter, also a solicitor, had attended at Dundalk Garda station the previous day to view the CCTV that was being relied upon to charge Smith and was unable to view it.

Gda. Byrne said this was correct, but the USB memory stick would not work on the PC in the room they were in. He said the CCTV is available for the solicitors to view.

Mr Lavery said it was his understanding that the incident had not been captured on CCTV.

Gda. Byrne said this was correct, and added that the witness ‘saw the incident taking place beside his car and when he saw the CCTV from the area, he identified the man who he says attacked the victim’.

According to Gda. Byrne, the witness ‘was not able to identify the man by name, but he was identified by the witness as the person involved and the Gardai identified him (Smith).

Mr Lavery said this was hearsay evidence and the charge against his client remains no more than an allegation. He said, and Gda. Byrne confirmed, that no knife has been recovered and the person alleged to have had the knife has not yet been arrested.

Mr Lavery said the only evidence against his client remains the CCTV which the solicitors have not been shown. He said Smith’s innocence ‘must be respected by the court’ and the alleged evidence was ‘not enough to stop the granting of bail’.

Judge William Hamill refused to grant bail and adjourned the case to Cloverhill District Court on August 25. He ordered that Mr Lavery be facilitated in viewing the CCTV ‘as soon as possible’.