A then 12-year-old boy told gardaí All-Star and former Co Clare All-Ireland winning hurler Niall Gilligan whacked him “full force” with a stick during an alleged assault in October 2023.
At Ennis Circuit Court on Wednesday, in a video interview with specialist Garda interviewers played to the jury, the boy said Mr Gilligan “just kept hitting me” outside the Jamaica Inn in Sixmilebridge on October 5th, 2023.
Mr Gilligan (48) of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, denies the charge of assault causing harm to the boy.
In the interview carried out on November 11th, 2023, the boy said he went to the abandoned hostel with a friend to explore at around 5pm on the day in question.
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Mr Gilligan owned the Jamaica Inn hostel at the time, and in the days running up to October 5th, the jury was told the property had been broken into and vandalised.
The boy said, on exiting the building, he and his friend ran after they saw a man, and he slipped.
The boy said: “I tried to get up and he whacked me on the leg. He just had the stick - full force.
“He just kept hitting me and hitting me but I don’t know how long he did it for because I got knocked out.”
The boy said he tried to defend himself by putting a hand up “and my wrist was big as a sliotar”.
The boy claimed Mr Gilligan dragged him out by the hood.
Asked by the Garda specialist interviewer if Mr Gilligan said anything, the boy replied: “I think he said ‘never come back’.”
The boy said his father showed him a photo of Mr Gilligan at the VHI clinic later that evening “and I knew that it was him”.
In his cross examination by Pat Whyms BL, counsel for Mr Gilligan, the boy, now 14, said October 5th, 2023, was his third time to go into the Jamaica Inn around that period; he admitted stealing keys to the property and he let off fire extinguishers there with a friend.
In her earlier opening statement to the jury, counsel for the State, Sarah-Jane Comerford BL, said the jury will hear medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the boy, and see photos of bruising and cuts he says were caused by Mr Gilligan hitting him with a wooden stick.
Ms Comerford said after the alleged assault, Mr Gilligan was subsequently arrested by gardaí. He said his interactions with the boy were in self defence.
Ms Comerford said Mr Gilligan denies assaulting the boy with a wooden stick and he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing harm.
Mr Gilligan is also pleading not guilty to producing a wooden stick capable of inflicting serious injury.
The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women on Thursday.
