Former All-Ireland winning hurler Niall Gilligan, who is on trial accused of assaulting a 12-year-old boy with a stick, told gardaí he acted in “a reasonable manner” to protect himself at the time of the alleged incident.
The jury at Ennis Circuit Court heard that Mr Gilligan made a pre-prepared statement to gardaí on February 19th, 2024, in response to the allegation that he assaulted the boy with a stick at the Jamaica Inn Hostel, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare on October 5th, 2023.
The court earlier heard that the boy Mr Gilligan is alleged to have assaulted sustained a fractured bone in his left hand in the incident. Medical reports showed he had 2cm wounds to his right forearm and shin, bruising to his right shoulder and that medics believed he lost consciousness briefly.
Photographs of the boy’s injuries were shown to the jury along with the mud-stained clothes he was wearing at the time.
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Mr Gilligan (48), of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, denies a charge of assault causing harm with a stick at the Jamaica Inn hostel, Sixmilebridge on October 5th, 2023.
He purchased the Jamaica Inn in 2022 and sold it in late 2023 to a company seeking accommodation for staff, the court heard.
In evidence, the boy’s father said he brought his son to a VHI clinic at Raheen, Limerick on the evening of October 5th, 2023. He said he did not initially believe his son when he said he had fallen off his bike.
“Once they [medical staff] started cutting his clothes off him they were finding more and more injuries,” he said. “They found he had soiled himself which led them to believe that he was unconscious at some stage.”
He said staff at the clinic decided the boy should be transferred by ambulance to the University Hospital Limerick emergency department.
The father told the jury he got Mr Gilligan’s phone number after his son told him what had occurred and called him: “I said I am currently in A&E with my son who you just viciously attacked.”
He said Mr Gilligan did not respond to the allegation.
In his account of the phone call, read by Det Noel Carroll from a prepared statement, Mr Gilligan said: “He said that his son got hurt. I made no comment to that after his son and others had broken into my building and caused extensive damage, including lighting a fire, releasing my fire extinguishers, breaking windows, writing graffiti.”
Mr Gilligan said he decided to take legal advice “as soon as I could about this call and make a formal complaint to the gardaí about the damage and trespass”.
He was formally arrested on suspicion of assault on February 19th, 2024, and was accompanied to Shannon Garda station by his solicitor, Daragh Hassett.
Mr Gilligan denied assaulting the boy, saying: “I acted in a reasonable manner to protect myself from injury and assault from a person or persons unknown to me in the conditions that prevailed.”
In the five-page statement, Mr Gilligan said: “I didn’t know who or what was coming at me that night. Something was coming at me, wasn’t retreating or calling out to me so I had to defend myself as any reasonable person would.”
Mr Gilligan added that he could see he was “dealing with a male youth” and he “grabbed him by his coat or jacket and brought him out of the building”.
“We went around the back to see where the other two intruders had gone to,” he said. “When we got around the back we got entangled in the dark and fell on top of each other on a slippery path under the pine trees.”
Mr Gilligan said he told the youth never to enter his property again and walked “him out to the front gate”.
“I asked him his name at this stage. He gave his name. He made no complaint of any injuries to me.”
He said he felt “sorry for the boy” but the incident would never have happened if “he and others hadn’t broken into my property”.
The trial continues.
