A round-up of other court stories in brief...
Man guilty of sexual assault 40 years ago
A 62-year-old school teacher has been convicted at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of indecently assaulting a pupil over 40 years ago.
The jury of seven women and five men took over four hours to return their majority verdict of guilty on all 12 counts against the teacher.
The man had pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting the boy at a Dublin primary school on numerous occasions between July 1966 and June 1970.
The now 49-year-old complainant told prosecuting counsel, Roisin Lacey, that the teacher would take his hand and put it on his crotch outside his clothes for a few moments as he sat at his desk. He said the incidents left him “stunned and unhappy” but didn’t make a complaint till 2002 because he “found it difficult to put words on it” and because otherwise he had liked his teacher.
‘Battle of sexes’ injury award
A Dublin man has been awarded €7,000 for injuries he received while participating in a game called “the battle of the sexes” while on holiday in the Canary Islands.
Paul Douglas, of Corduff Grove, Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court that Panorama Holiday representatives had talked him into taking part in a game while holidaying with his family in Gran Canaria.
“It was a game called the battle of the sexes in which three fellas and three girls had to run among the audience persuading members of the opposite sex into parting with certain items of clothing,” Mr Douglas told Judge Jacqueline Linnane.
“We had to bring the clothes back to the stage and the winner was the one who could do it in the shortest time possible,” he said.
Barrister Anthony Moore, who appeared for Mr Douglas, said that when his client ran back to the stage he slipped on a spilled drink and sprained his ankle as well as hurting his hip and lower back. Mr Douglas (48) said the accident happened in October 2002 while holidaying at Club Vista Dorada, Gran Canaria.
Boylan action on rail works settled
The High Court has been told a legal action by former Meath GAA football manager Seán Boylan over the manner in which rail improvement works near his home are been carried out has been settled.
Mr Boylan had on Wednesday secured a temporary injunction restraining Iarnród Éireann or its agents carrying out works on the Navan/Dublin line close to his home and herbal remedies clinic in Dunboyne except in accordance with law.
The matter came back yesterday before Ms Justice Mary Laffoy who was told, following talks, it had been resolved on terms handed into the court.
‘Drug mule’ jailed for seven years
A man who had to undergo emergency surgery after he swallowed 80 pellets of vacuum-packed cocaine has been jailed for seven years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Andrew Perceval (41), who is from Australia, later told gardaí that he had been threatened by a gang of Nigerian criminals in Spain to transport the cocaine, valued at €56,000, from Amsterdam to Ireland. Perceval had part of his intestine removed as a result and has had a colostomy bag since. His counsel said Perceval had to “an extent been punished by his actions already”.