Barrister loses appeal over conviction for headbutting creche worker

A barrister who headbutted a creche manager and broke her nose has lost an appeal against his conviction for assault causing harm.

In October 2013, Michael Waters (44), of Ava Avenue, Belfast, was given a suspended three-year sentence after he was found guilty by a majority jury of assaulting Marian Wallace on January 4th, 2012.

Mr Waters, who is disabled and suffers from a progressive muscle-wasting condition, was also ordered not to make any contact with the injured party or any member of staff at her creche in south Dublin for 15 years.

He appealed his conviction and on Thursday, a three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed his case. It found his conviction before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was safe.

Mr Justice John Edwards said, on the day before the incident, Ms Wallace received an email from Mr Waters' partner revoking permission for him to collect their child from the creche.

Mr Waters arrived and insisted he was not leaving without the child. Ms Wallace tried to get him to go outside the children’s room.

Bite

There followed an incident in a corridor in which Ms Wallace said Mr Waters threatened her, attempted to bite her on the face and then tried to bite her hand as she held a door handle to prevent him getting back into the room.

Then, before telling her “I’m going to hurt you”, he “put back his head and headbutted me straight into the face”, she said.

Mr Waters claimed she hit her nose after he managed to get in front of her when she pulled and dragged him from behind with the result he fell over on her. Ms Wallace said that never happened.

Mr Waters appealed his conviction and sentence on 10 grounds including a failure by prosecutors to disclose certain witness statements, including from Ms Wallace.

Rejecting his appeal against conviction on all grounds, Mr Justice Edwards said the court considered that none of the undisclosed statements contained any significant inconsistency, in the sense of containing something radically different from what was said on another occasion.

Mr Waters, in complaining about non-disclosure, had not engaged with the evidence actually given at trial or demonstrated how that undisclosed material might have made a difference to the outcome, the judge said.

The court also refused his application to adduce new evidence by allowing him further cross-examine witnesses in relation to the undisclosed statements.

It also rejected grounds of appeal alleging failures in the garda investigation or of an embellishment of evidence by the prosecution resulting in unfairness.