Businesswoman suffers assault while trying to break up fight
INTERVENED WHEN SHE SAW TWO WOMEN FIGHTING OUTSIDE HER PREMISES
THE OWNER of a laundry business ended up being hit, had her hair pulled out and suffered bruising after trying to stop a fight between two women.
Before Tubbercurry court was Susan McMorrow, who was charged with assault on two separate occasions.
Geraldine Brennan, who runs the Laundry Basket in Tubbercurry, told the court that on March 13th last she was at her premises when she looked out and saw the defendant pulling the hair of Brigid Quinn.
She immediately went out and told her to break it up.
McMorrow ( 40) continued to fight and Ms Brennan told Brigid to go into the laundry shop.
“Susan proceeded to push her way into the shop, she was kicking the doors.
“My daughter was trying to close the doors, Susan was pulling my hair, I couldn’t get away.
“Two lads came and pulled her off, she then tried to get in through the windows and doors of the back of the shop too but they were closed.”
Geraldine added: “She hit me a few times too, I had bruises afterward and some of my hair was pulled out, it was not a nice situation,” she told Judge Kevin Kilrane.
Superintendent Kevin English told the court that the incident started when Quinn, her father and McMorrow were travelling to Tubbercurry from Sligo on a bus.
“The defendant kept harrassing the other party and then followed her.”
McMorrow, of Highfield, Tubbercurry, was also charged with assault on April 2nd 2013 at the National Learning Network in Teeling Street, Tubbercurry.
Here, the court heard that she assaulted two employees, Mary McHugh and Bernadette Pilkington, in what was described as an unprovoked attack.
Ms Pilkington said that the attack had left her with bruising and she was afraid of meeting McMorrow around the streets.
“The attack violated the trust between Susan and myself that was built up over many years,” she added.
Defending solicitor Eamonn Gallagher said that McMorrow was a previous resident in Cloonamahon.
She has a mild intellectual disability and was living on her own with support and supervision from the HSE.
Judge Kilrane asked what caused her to be violent. He called her actions ‘ vicious’. “Ms Brennan was protecting Ms Quinn, I would like to know where this violence comes from?” he asked.
McMorrow’s mother told the judge when questioned that her daughter, despite having tantrums, had not been violent in the past.
McMorrow said that she was very sorry about what happened and told the judge that it would not be repeated.
However, Judge Kilrane reminded her that she was before the court in 2013 and said something similar.
“I am quite satisfied that you know the difference between right and wrong, you need to learn how to control your temper,” he told her.
The judge adjourned the case until October and warned McMorrow she could go to prison if it happened again.