‘Compensation was the driver behind this case’
Furious judge dismisses B&B owner’s €16k claim for damages
A MAN who pleaded guilty to criminal damage and harassment escaped conviction after a judge found the ‘entire case’ against him was built on ‘extreme exaggeration’.
The man was instead ordered to donate money for new local Christmas lights and given the Probation Offenders Act after the judge found the victim in the case inflated the cost of damage caused to her property ‘to intentionally take money’ from the defendant.
The bizarre case centred around two neighbours living in Co. Leitrim and a dispute over a ‘right of access’ to a field that resulted in one of the neighbours ‘traversing’ the other’s land by ‘two to three metres’.
Catherine Vaughan told a court this week she had suffered years of harassment and bullying since buying Hartley House near Cootehall in 2017.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Vaughan said the actions of her neighbour Dermot McLoughlin had left her in ‘fear’, forced her out of her home and prevented her from operating her B&B business.
Mr McLoughlin pleaded guilty to criminal damage and harassment on Friday, but was given the Probation Offenders Act and ordered to pay €500 to Drumshanbo Tidy Towns so they can install new Christmas lights this year.
Judge Kevin Kilrane made his decision after deciding to visit the land at the centre of the dispute during a court hearing on Friday.
The judge later told Carrick-on-Shan-property non District Court he thought Ms Vaughan’s victim impact statement ‘would never end’ and said ‘exaggeration and compensation’ were driving the case.
The judge noted that Ms Vaughan’s home, Hartley House, is in ‘wonderful condition’.
Earlier in the case, Mr McLoughlin’s solicitor Kieran Ryan told the court the ‘facts are not disputed’, but the amount of over €16,000 in damage caused to the property was contested.
Outlining the facts of the case, Detective Garda Brian McMahon told the court that from March 2017 to June 2020, Mr McLoughlin allegedly traversed Ms Vaughan’s
to enter his land. He said Ms Vaughan moved out of her home in May 2020 after becoming ‘fearful of the alarming behaviour’ of the defendant.
Det. Garda McMahon said the victim’s fence was broken and wall damaged. Ms Vaughan put the fence back up, but Mr McLoughlin broke it again and removed its posts from the ground.
Mr McLoughlin was observed on CCTV removing the fence after 3am one night and again at 10.28pm removing rope stopping him from entering.
Ms Vaughan later told the court Mr McLoughlin would drive his
tractor in his field behind her house in the middle of the night with the lights off and she also saw him peering through her hedge at 11.30pm one night.
Mr McLoughlin was arrested and interviewed. He told the gardaí that his family had been entering their land this way since 1982. He said he removed the gate and put down a new roadway for ease of access for livestock.
Mr McLoughlin was asked if he had caused Ms Vaughan ‘fear’ and he replied ‘not really, maybe taking down the fence’. He said he thought he handled the issue ‘admirably’.
He denied causing any damage to
the victim’s laurel hedging and said he ‘never set out to intimidate’.
Mr McLoughlin told gardaí the victim had a ‘bloody cheek’ to block the entrance. He said it was a ‘man thing at play’ and that the neighbours and ‘lads in the pub’ would laugh at him if he didn’t handle the situation ‘like a man’.
Mr McLoughlin told gardaí Ms Vaughan was behaving like a child and ‘if she was a man it would have been sorted in the pub’.
Solicitor Kieran Ryan told the judge it is ‘accepted’ damage was caused, ‘but not anything like the €16,000’ being claimed.
Ms Vaughan told the court damage was caused to her fence within weeks of her moving into the house in 2017. She said an iron rail, which she described as stately, was left ‘twisted’ and a stone wall had stones ‘pulled out and scattered around’.
She said when she bought the house there was no right of way on any map and she got her ‘solicitor and engineer to check’.
She told the court her ‘real concern’ was ‘as a direct result of this man’s behaviour I can’t live in my house’ and cannot operate her B&B business.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Vaughan told how in 2017 she purchased the period-style property built in the 1700s and transformed it into a B&B business.
But by 2020 she was ‘very fearful’ as a result of Mr McLoughlin’s behaviour and claimed she was ‘forced’ out of her home.
She said when she first met the defendant he noted: ‘I noticed you have no rings, you are not married,’ before asking ‘have you any sons?’ She said she found this ‘particularly disturbing’.
Judge Kevin Kilrane outlined how he had visited the land in question, including Mr McLoughlin’s family land, Ms Vaughan’s land and an ‘island of land’ immediately inside the gate at the centre of
‘I thought her statement would never end’
‘Case was taken to set up some sort of claim’
the dispute, which belongs to another family.
He said the alleged damage to a metal fence described by Ms Vaughan as a ‘complete exaggeration’, adding that the rail was ‘beyond repair’ to start with and that this evidence undermined ‘all’ the victim’s evidence.
He said the laurel hedge was ‘perfectly good’ and said he inspected the wall that was allegedly damaged and ‘there is no damage’.
He questioned how she could see someone peering through a hedge at 11.30pm and said he ‘can only imagine’ the case was taken ‘to set this man up for some sort of claim’.
The judge said the case was about Mr McLoughlin entering the gateway and Ms Vaughan deciding ‘he was going to pay’, before adding: ‘Well she’s not going to get money from me.’
Judge Kilrane said it was ‘clear Mr McLoughlin was wrong in damaging the fence’ and ordered him to pay Ms Vaughan €1,200 for the damage. He handed down the Probation Offenders Act for the criminal damage charge.
In relation to the harassment charge, the judge said Mr McLoughlin entered a gate 300 metres from the victim’s house.
He said Ms Vaughan behaved in a ‘poisoned way’ and he thought her statement ‘would never end’.
The judge ordered Mr McLoughlin to give €500 to charity and noted how the Drumshanbo Tidy Towns are looking for Christmas lights.