Judge: I will put a stop to feuds
STRONG MESSAGE SENT
DUNDALK’S new district court judge, John Coughlan, has sent out a strong message to people engaged in feuding – he’s putting a stop to it. Judge Coughlan, pictured right, who was appointed to the Louth District recently, said he will end feuding in Dundalk after hearing the details of two cases before his court last week.
In the first case, he dismissed assault causing harm charges against two defendants after hearing there was a disagreement between fam- ilies. At the end of the second, unrelated, case, where a 12-year-old was pushed in a school yard by a 21-year-old man who was feuding with her family, he said: ‘By the time I’m finished in Dundalk, there will be no feuding in Dundalk. I can guarantee that’.
A Muirhevnamor man who admitted pushing and threatening a 12-year-old girl while in her school yard has been given a jail sentence, despite being recommended for community service.
Aaron Smith, (20), 15 Doolargy Avenue, admitted at an earlier sitting of the district court, to charges of assault and engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour at O Fiaich College on September 17 2015. The school girl told Gardai how Smith had approached her in the yard and threatened him, telling her ‘I’m going to kill you and burn your house’.
The girl was pushed by Smith and when the victim asked him his name, the defendant told her who he was. The victim reported the matter to her family, who contacted Gardai.
The incident was not captured on CCTV and Gardai said no physical injury was caused to the girl. Solicitor Eleanor Kelly said the incident happened in the context of ‘difficulties with the family of this young victim’. Smith has already engaged well with community service he’s serving on other matters, Ms Kelly said.
Judge Brennan, who initially heard the case, said he wanted to see a probation report, as well as a victim impact report, and adjourned the case to last week.
But Judge John Coughlan said he wanted to hear an outline of the facts again. He read the reports and said he was not impressed.
Ms Kelly said the response to the incident was that Smith’s house was petrol bombed. She asked for the matter to be adjourned to Judge Brennan’s list in August. Judge Coughlan accused Ms Kelly of ‘judge hopping’, which she denied.
He said: ‘It’s not OK in Dundalk. I’m entitled to my independence’. Ms Kelly said the feud between the families had ‘ totally died down’.
But Judge Coughlan imposed a four month sentence, and allowed Smith to appeal in his own cash bond of €200.
He said: ‘By the time I’m finished in Dundalk, there will be no feuding in Dundalk – I can guarantee that’.