Chargedwith assaultatmatch

A Carlingford man has been charged with assaulting another man at a Gaelic football match in Lordship and has entered a not guilty plea.

Sean Connor (32), Moneymore Road, Carlingford, is accused of assault causing harm to a man at St Patrick’s GFC on October 9 2015. Judge Brennan was told last week the defendant is pleading not guilty and there would be ‘at least 11, if not 15 prosecution witnesses’. The judge heard how it is alleged the incident happened during the course of a football match and the alleged victim sustained injury to his face, but there was no weapon used and no permanent injury caused.

Solicitor Conor MacGuill said it was expected the case would last in excess of two hours and the judge adjourned it to January 11 for hearing. defendant a chance and added McClelland ‘comes from a good family’.

Judge Brennan told the defendant he was lucky if he didn’t have a problem with cannabis as many people do and ‘drugs should be avoided like the plague, because that’s what they are’. He said the cost of drugs in terms of human misery is ‘appalling’. He dismissed the drugs possession charge under the Probation Act’. drunk. Gardai said he was ‘causing a disturbance at the door’ and he was ‘highly intoxicated’.

Gardai directed him to leave the area and he ran onto the road, in front of traffic. He was apprehended at Earl Street and Gardai said Lee was ‘very aggressive’ during the arrest and on the way to the station.

Solicitor Peter Lavery, said Lee, who has no previous convictions, ‘knows he should have left, and he thought that when he was told to move on that he did, but it wasn’t in the manner he should have’.

Mr Lavery said his client, an out of work carpenter, wanted to keep his clear record. Judge Brennan dismissed the charges under the Probation Act and told Lee: ‘Mind how much you drink in future - that seems to be part of the problem’.