A 48-year-old widower, charged in connection with an attempted child abduction incident, drove through residential areas wearing a pig's head mask for a "laugh", a court heard yesterday.
Gerard Hogan of Ballycannon, Meelick, Co Clare, was appearing before Limerick Circuit Court where he denied charges of false imprisonment and assault causing harm on August 19th, 2001. "I might be a bit crazy sometimes, but I'm not stupid," he told the court. The charges relate to the alleged attempt by the father of five to grab a nine-year-old girl near her home in Kileely on the city's northside.
Yesterday, the girl's father gave evidence of how his daughter had been out cycling before she came home in a distressed state.
The witness also said that Gerard Hogan had called to his house the following day and told him that he did not try to abduct his daughter.
Under cross-examination, the girl's father denied that he had told Mr Hogan that he didn't want to put his daughter through the ordeal of the courts. He also denied that he was under any pressure from other families in the area to press charges against Mr Hogan.
In earlier evidence, the girl, now aged 11, described how a masked man in a silver car drove up to her and caught her by the arm with one hand while trying to open the door with the other.
The young girl described the mask as similar to one of the popular Rugrat cartoon characters.Three other children also gave evidence of having been approached by a masked man in a silver car on the evening of the incident.
In the witness box yesterday, the accused man told the court how he would put on the mask when people called to his front door to give them a fright. "I thought it was very funny - I like doing crazy things," said Mr Hogan.
He told the court that on the day in question he had driven to his son's house in Thomondgate with the mask and did not stop on the way.
He was wearing the mask and played with his grandchildren and other youngsters on the street outside his son's house.
After about an hour, he left his son's house and drove home, wearing the pig's head mask, via the Meelick Tavern where he had hoped to meet a friend.
However, his friend wasn't in the pub and he continued home just in time for Coronation Street on the television. It was shortly after this that gardaí called to the house and told him they were investigating reports of a serious incident. The trial continues before Judge Carroll Moran at Limerick Circuit Court.