A Department of Agriculture vet was struck on the legs with an iron bar when he tried to inspect an illegal slaughterhouse, a court heard yesterday.
The operator of the abattoir, Charles Farrell (63), Cannon brook Court, Newcastle Road, Co Dublin, was fined £1,700 and also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the vet, Mr Brian Flaherty. He pleaded guilty to assault and three charges under the Abattoirs Act 1988 of obstruction, not having a licence for the abattoir and not having health stamps on carcasses.
Mr Patrick O'Reilly, for the Minister of Agriculture, told Dublin District Court the incident happened in a premises at Ranelagh Road on June 11th last year. Mr Flaherty arrived at the premises to find a livestock trailer parked against two doors.
He gained entry by jumping up on the trailer and as soon as he was inside, Farrell, dressed in blood-soaked overalls, approached him. "He manhandled me and said I should not be on his property and I told him I was entitled to be there and what business was he doing."
Farrell replied that he was "just killing a few animals for himself" and he had leased the premises from someone else.
Farrell continued to manhandle Mr Flaherty and told him if he wanted to inspect the premises to come back the next day. He then opened a side door and let Mr Flaherty out into a lane, where he rang for assistance from Department colleagues and gardai.
Mr Flaherty climbed back on the trailer and when Farrell saw him he grabbed an iron bar and hit him across both legs. Mr Flaherty then climbed on to the roof of the building but, concerned that Farrell might be trying to remove "material of an evidential nature", he got back down where he grabbed hold of the bar in the accused's hands. Another man in blood-stained overalls came out and tried to wrench the bar from Mr Flaherty but when he was warned that it was an official inspection, he left.
At that stage Department officers and gardai arrived and a full inspection was carried out. They found carcasses and remains of about 15 sheep, some of which had recently been killed. Other pieces of meat appeared to have been there for some time, with one carcass showing a considerable amount of mould.
Judge Sean McBride also ordered Farrell to be of good behaviour for the next two years.