Tag Archives: Trial

A murder accused was in a “life or death situation” and acting in self-defence on the night he stabbed a man who later died, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has been told. Robbie Walsh, (23), from Island View, Kilrush has pleaded not guilty to murdering Karl ‘Gobble’ Haugh,(25), in the Marian Estate in Kilkee on August 6, 2017. Patrick Gageby, SC, prosecuting, and Brendan Grehan, SC, defending, made their closing arguments in the case before Ms Justice Carmel Stewart and a jury on Monday. The court has previously heard Robbie Walsh and his cousins, Mitchell Walsh and Clinton Walsh, also from Kilrush, went to the Marian Estate on the Saturday night of the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2017 to smash up Mr Haugh’s car. It also heard Mitchell Walsh carried a knife, while Robbie Walsh and Clinton Walsh, or all three, carried metal bars. The decision to vandalise Mr Haugh’s car followed an alleged separate physical altercation …

A man “of some standing” in his community who repeatedly raped his friend’s daughter when she was a child has been jailed for eight years. Noel Kelleher (64) was found guilty by a jury of six counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of oral rape and one count of attempted oral rape of his victim at various locations in County Clare between June 1991 and August 1992. Kelleher, of Gort na hAbhna, Roslevan, Ennis, was found not guilty of a further 16 counts of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault by the jury following a Central Criminal Court trial last November. His victim, who was aged between 12 and 14 at the time of the attacks, wished to waive her right to anonymity, the court heard. Sentencing Kelleher on Monday, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said his abuse had a “deep and long-lasting impact” on his victim, which continues to this day. “These are very serious offences perpetrated …

A jury took over five and a half hours to find an  80-year-old former school principal guilty of indecently assaulting 11 female students over a 21-year period. The jury at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court unanimously found Patrick Barry of Well Road, Kilkee guilty on 59 counts of indecent assault against the school girls between 1964 and 1985 at Moyasta National School. Judge Gerald Keyes had directed the jury to find Barry not guilty on eight outstanding counts for legal reasons. Counsel for the State, Anthony Sammon SC, said: “It is the express wish of the complainants that Mr Barry be named.” The judge ordered that Barry be identified and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register. Judge Keyes remanded Barry on continuing bail to reappear before the court in October 28 to fix a date for sentence.